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THE 



POWER OF THE SOUL 

OVER THE BODY, 



CONSIDERED 



IN RELATION TO HEALTH AND MORALS. 



GEORGE k00RE, M.D., 

MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS, LONDON, 
ETC., ETC. 



'Thou hast a noble guest, O flesh !" 

St. Barnard, 



NEW YORK: 
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 

82 CLIFF STREET. 

184 7. 



PREFACE. 



This sketch of the influence of the mind on 
the body was commenced and continued with 
the feeling that the soul is the true object of af- 
fection, and that all its interests are essentially- 
religious. The principal part of the volume 
was written, several years since, during the 
unwelcome but valuable leisure of disease, for 
the purpose of being addressed to a few young 
men who appeared to be deeply impressed with 
the nature and importance of the subject. On 
a reperusal of the manuscript, the recollection 
of this encouragement induced a hope that the 
publication might find an apology in the ap- 
proval of reflecting readers, especially as at 
this. time the public mind is unusually roused to 
the observation of mental influences in the pro- 
duction of remarkable phenomena under mes- 
merism and disease. The views exhibited in 
these pages having been consolatory and in- 
structive to himself, the author trusts will be 
deemed at least a good reason for his endeavor 
thus to obtain the attention of others. A corre- 



IV PREFACE. 



sponding volume, concerning Bodily Tempera- 
ment, Will j and Habit, was intended to have 
accompanied this ; but it may more suitably 
follow, should public favor in any degree en- 
courage the present adventure. 

As said good old " Iohn Caius, Docteur in 
Phisicke," a.d. 1552, " man beying borne not for 
his owne vse and comoditie alone, but also for 
the commo benefite of many (as reason wil and 
al good authores write), he whiche in this world 
is worthy to lyue, ought al ways to haue his 
hole minde and intente geuen to profite others. 
Which thynge to shewe in effecte in my self al- 
though by fortune some waies I haue been letted, 
yet by that whiche fortune cannot debarre, some 
waies again I haue declared" 

Hastings, March 11, 1845. 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Introduction 7 

I The Adaptation of the Body to the Soul ... 17 
II. The Organs of Sense the Instruments of the ■ 

Mind 25 

III. The Mind is not the Result of Sensation ... 29 

IV. The Value of the Senses, and Observations on 

their Use 37 

V. Connection of the Mind with the Brain, etc. . 51 
VI. Evils of Popular Phrenology ....... 59 

VII. Nature of the Nervous System, and its Obedi- 

ence to the Will 66 

VIII. The Power of Attention, and its Connection 

with Sleep 73 

IX. The State of the Will in Dreaming .... 81 

X. Illustrations of the Power of the Mind in Dream- 

ing, Somnambulism, etc 85 

XI. The State of the Attention modifies Sensation . 97 

XII. The Faculty of Abstraction 103 

XIII. The Difference between Absence and Abstrac- 

tion of Mind, and their Relations to the State 

of the Will in Connection with the Body . 109 

XIV. The Action of the Mind on the Nervous Organ- 

ization in Memory, etc 116 

XV. The Connection of Memory with the Habit and 

Condition of the Brain, and the Use of the 
Body 128 

XVI. The Influence of Mental Habit on the Charac- 

ter of the Memory 134 

XVII. The Connection of Memory with Double Con- 

sciousness 143 

XVIII. Further Facts and Observations in Proof of the 

Immaterial Nature of Memory 152 



VI CONTENTS. 

PART II. 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Positive Action of the Mind on the Body, as- 

serted and exemplified in the effects of excessive 
Attention 163 

II. Injudicious Education 170 

III. Peculiar Effects of inordinate Mental Determina- 

tion 180 

IV. The Effects of undue Attention to one's own Body 189 

V. Misemploy ment of the Mind 199 

VI. Chagrin and Suicide 208 

VII. Irritable Brain, Insanity, etc 214 

VIII. A general view of the Effects of the Passions on 

Health 224 

IX. Sympathy 241 

X. Solitude . . . 250 

XI. The Government of the Passions 258 

XII. The highest Triumph of the Sotd.— Conclusion . 263 



INTRODUCTION. 



The term soul has been preferred to stand in the 
title of this volume, because in common discourse 
it is employed to signify an individual intelligent 
being, which actuates the body, and is popularly 
supposed to be capable of an active existence in- 
dependent of physical connection. It is meant 
to designate that which is conscious of acting, 
thinking, and willing. To avoid confusion, the 
words soul, mind, and spirit, will be employed as 
synonymous ; because to distinguish their proper 
shades of meaning would require a metaphysical 
nicety incompatible with the purpose of this work. 
We perceive the diversified operations of the think- 
ing principle, and call it by different names, accord- 
ing to its different manifestations; but the unity 
of its nature, like that of God himself, is an an- 
nounced or a revealed truth, to be received by 
faith, because our faculties will not allow us yet to 
comprehend an existence without parts. In using 



INTRODUCTION. 8 

the senses, we speak of the soul under the term 
Sense ; when inferring truth from truth, we call it 
Understanding ; when fancying the future, Imagi- 
nation ; when reviewing the past, Memory ; when 
choosing or refusing, Will. Yet all our faculties 
are but properties of one being, and we feel our 
identity amid all the diversity of our thoughts and 
purposes. 

We can not explain the mode any more than the 
nature of that which thinks ; and mere endeavors 
to define what we can not demonstrate neither im- 
prove our faculties nor advance our knowledge. 
An elaborate disquisition on mind and matter 
would therefore be a useless demand on patience ; 
and since we can not discover any thing concern- 
ing either but in their operations on each other, if 
we would learn their relative importance, we must 
study their reciprocal influence. 

Some philosophers, perhaps forgetful that mind 
is manifested by its own consciousness, have assert- 
ed that intelligence is but a result of material con- 
stitution, and, therefore, that the decay or destruc- 
tion of the physical organization, with which it is 
at present connected, necessarily involves also the 
everlasting dissolution of the thinking principle. 
Whether true or false, this must be a miserable 
conclusion ; for it implies that our Creator, if there 
be one, has formed his sentient and intelligent creat- 
ure, man, for no other purpose than to witness, 
for a short time, his own paradoxical existence, to 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

contrast his desires with his destiny, to shrink away 
in terror from the sight and the thought of all that 
is glorious, great, good, or enduring, and to shun 
all notion of Deity, lest what is thus presented to 
his apprehension, should excite aspiring wishes, 
and build up lofty hopes, only that their destruction 
may be the more certain and the more extensive. 
The wondrous speculum, which restless research 
inspires man with ingenuity to fabricate, reflects 
the dim glimmerings of infinite worlds, into which 
he would direct his inquiring ken, only to kindle 
and expand, and then becloud his reason; for to 
follow its promptings were merely madness, and 
wisdom would be impossible ; even to know would 
be vanity and folly, unless we knew that existence 
might be equal to our felt capacity of enjoying it. 
Were & man sure that he could not possibly pos- 
sess a better than this earthly life, to look off from 
this dull cold spot would only be to aggravate his 
doom. The glory of distant worlds would fall like 
a blight upon his being, for it will suggest possibil- 
ities of intelligence and delight forever beyond his 
reach. 

A creeping thing prepares for its perfection, and 
at length bursts from its silken tomb with newly- 
developed form, appetites, and nature. Like a 
" winged flower/' with brilliant and delicate pin- 
ions, and rich in gems, it gladly flutters with the 
light, and sips nectar from the hand of God. 

The grub may tend to be a butterfly, but why 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

should the worm just peeping from its clod aspire 
to any thing beyond the clay on which it is des- 
tined to crawl and rot? And why should man 
look higher ] Why ? His spirit will not crawl ; it 
travels along with the light into infinite space, and 
calculates on a life and a capacity commensurate 
with its desires. He is impelled by a belief, which 
seems essential to his rational existence, that this 
beautiful world is not altogether a delusive show ; 
for he can not think that the wondrous facts of cre- 
ation teach him to look for the end of truth only 
in death ; but he feels that, in proportion as his in- 
tellect expands and expatiates in knowledge, does 
it aspire to immortality, and when most intimate 
with the realities of time, his reason finds stability, 
satisfaction, and rest, only in communion with the 
Eternal. 

All who have looked below the surface of things, 
must account that science despicable, and that phi- 
losophy pitifully meager, which afford no higher ob- 
ject of pursuit than a little sensuality ; no brighter 
prospect than a phantom life, no better end than 
an endless death. 

If believers in the material system of faith (it de- 
mands great faith, such as it is), indeed, allow that 
there is existence beyond things, if they do allow a 
God, it certainly must be a god of their own. He 
can not have revealed himself to the world, for 
there is not any reasonable pretense to a revelation 
but in the Bible ; and therefore those who believe, 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

in contradiction to that Book, the doctrine which 
teaches that the soul dies with the body, must have 
substituted their own opinions for the declarations 
of that venerable authority, and instead of worship- 
ing Jehovah, or in any measure obeying his laws, 
they must have constituted themselves their own 
deity, and made their own glory and convenience 
the end of all their thoughts, and all their actions. 
Unhappy men ! like fallen spirits, their pride sepa- 
rates them both from divine and human sympa- 
thy, — they can not believe that omnipotence is love, 
and therefore they can not adore. 

But there are those who tell us they have tasted 
a better philosophy, and they teach us to regard 
it as " a perpetual feast of nectared sweets," of 
which the more we partake the more we enjoy, 
and indeed the effect of its fullest enjoyment is 
nothing short of actual participation in Divine 
nature. This philosophy regards man as formed 
to be instructed by acquaintance with good and 
evil in this world, that the will may be disciplined 
under moral and physical law, and having knowl- 
edge imparted, and motives presented to the soul, 
it may be the better qualified for introduction to an 
enlarged existence. 

It is true, that in this state all intelligence that 
is not instinctive or intuitive is received only through 
the body, but yet our reason possesses perceptions 
of truth which sensation could never have convey- 
ed, and all our reflections concerning our nature 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

terminate in the conclusion which revelation war- 
rants,— that the soul dies not. Even the lower 
creatures, down to creeping things, are endowed 
with knowledge, which they acquire not by the use 
of their senses. No sooner do they burst from their 
" procreant cradle" than, instinct with skill, they 
seek their happiness in the right path, as if directly 
illuminated, by divine guidance. Why then should, 
man be without this guidance in his instinctive en- 
deavors after his proper enjoyment and in the pos- 
session of permanent blessedness 1 There is a 
light which, in the hope, lightens every man that 
cometh into the world. 

In pursuing our theme it behooves us, who pro- 
fess to be Christians, not to disregard the source 
from whence we derive our religion, but as far as 
we can, to conduct our inquiries as if we really felt 
the force of those truths which we profess to believe. 
Believers in revelation are not only preserved from 
the misery of the skeptic, but excited to larger in- 
quiries than he. The man of faith must be a think- | 
ing man, for he infers from facts, and is directed . 
as well as encouraged in his researches after every 
kind of truth ; since the book that secures his faith 
often supplies the subject, and also indicates the 
proper direction of rational study. Here we learn 
our origin and our end ; but without it mankind 
would have continued unable to discover either 
why or whence they had their being. The Bible 
indeed finds the same faults with this world that 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

common sense does, — sin, pain and death are in 
it; but then in the Bible only do we discover a 
promise of a perfect remedy for evil in the re-ad- 
justment of moral and material elements by God 
in man. 

The sublimest and most interesting thoughts ex- 
pressed in language are contained in the Genesis 
given by Moses. In this we find that the produc- 
tion of man was the finishing-stroke to creation — 
the Creator's especial thought, the final end of the 
six days' work. This earth appears to have been 
furnished for him by the creative word which said, 
"let light be," and light was. Man was then 
brought into being to behold His glory who formed 
our nature expressly in correspondence with De- 
ity : " in the image of God created he him." # And 
as the dust was fashioned by the immediate touch 
of Jehovah's finger, the human structure took the 
impress of Divinity. That this form of earthly 
mold and heavenly meaning might not remain 
like the temple without its indwelling glory, God 
breathed within man's body the abiding spirit of 
various lives, and thus also illumined him with the 
moral reflection of the divine character. The 
Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, 
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; 
and "man became a living soul." In these 

* We have divine authority for understanding this expression 
to denote the moral excellence and dominion with which man was 
endowed.— Eph. iv. 24 : Col. iii. 10. 

B 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

words we have a distinct announcement that life 
and mind did not manifest themselves as the or- 
ganization of its structure proceeded, but that vital- 
ity and intelligence were superadded, in connection 
with a separate existence directly imparted from 
Jehovah, and therefore in immediate relation with 
Him. 

Thus man walked forth in his paradise at once 
the representative and the worshiper of Love, and 
Light, and Power, connecting the visible with the 
invisible worlds in his own person, and by the 
union of spirit with matter, feebleness with perfec- 
tion, exhibiting the glorious mystery of creation, — 
Omnipotence revealed in contradictions reconciled. 
Man is the grand contradiction — a compound of 
paradoxes ; for he is constituted not only of oppo- 
sites, but of contraries. In studying ourselves, 
therefore, we become intimate with the greatest 
difficulties and the greatest interests. 

As before observed, the co-existence of mind 
with matter in one being is quite beyond our com- 
prehension, but not beyond our knowledge, for we 
experience the fact. The reason of our compound 
constitution is, simply, that the Great Spirit has 
willed our adaptation to a physical world, from 
whence we are to derive intelligence and enjoy- 
ment. We find, however, that our minds are 
governed by laws that have nothing to do with 
material organization ; for our sense of right and 
wrong, truth and falsehood, virtue and vice, has 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

no relation to bodily structure, but as the vehicle 
and instrument of mind. We conceive ideas, com- 
bine reason, not according to atomic affinities, but 
to spiritual associations. We love, hope, fear, if 
not irrespective of external impressions, at least 
without their continuance. Above all, we retain 
amid the changes of our bodies and the shifting 
variety of decay around us, a distinct consciousness 
of our own identity, and an intuitive conviction, 
as far as reason is awakened, that we hold our 
faculties and endowments, not from the fortuitous 
action of nature, as a blind power, but from the 
purpose of God as an informing spirit, in whom 
we live, and move, and have our being forever. 

Whatever will tend to confirm our confidence in 
this position will add to our happiness ; and it is 
hoped that the examination of facts which illustrate 
our nature will constrain us, as with the force of 
a rational necessity, practically to acknowledge our 
dependence, while it encourages our reliance on 
Him who remembers we are dust and breathes on 
us his spirit. The highest thought is of eternal 
Being. All real adoration is the feeling of a life 
oeyond sense, and which organization can not con- 
tain nor manifest, much less produce. It is the 
proceeding spirit acknowledging in love the parent 
spirit ; it is the communion of the Father and the 
Son ; an entrance into the glory which was before 
the world. From everlasting to everlasting, thou 
art, O Infinite ! The human mind would sink 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

crushed by the burden of the vast thought if thou 
didst not in humanity sustain thy creature. Enable 
us, O God, to reflect upon thine image in reverence, 
and to honor thy majesty as revealed in the fear- 
fully wondrous frame and in the moral excellence 
of man. 

Every sentient creature is characterized by its 
dispositions. The provision made for its enjoy- 
1nent, and also the peculiarities of its physical en- 
dowment, must be in keeping with its will. If, 
then, we would ascertain the true dignity and des- 
tiny of man, we must study the scope and power 
of that principle in him, and how it is influenced ; 
for, in fact, the mind or soul is thus especially mani- 
fested in the body. We may conveniently regard 
the power of the soul in the following respects : — 

1st. As manifested in the senses, in attention, 
and in memory. 

2dly. In the influence of mental determina- 
tion and emotion over the vital functions of the 
body. 



THE POWER 

OF 

THE SOUL OVER THE BODY, 



PART I. 

THE SOUL, AS MANIFESTED IN THE USE OF THE SENSES, 
IN ATTENTION AND IN MEMORY. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE ADAPTATION OF THE BODY TO THE SOUL. 

Throughout that part of creation within our 
scope, we behold evidences of infinite wisdom ; and 
whenever effects are traced to causes, and forma- 
tion is considered in respect to its design, we dis- 
cover a perfect adaptation of means to ends — the 
apparatus being exactly suited to its purpose, with- 
out defect, without redundancy. 

When surveying any living creature, we natu- 
rally inquire, why it is provided with such and 
such peculiarities of organization. In answer to 
the inquiry we learn that every peculiarity of for- 
mation is adapted to some instinct of the creature, 
or accommodates it the better to the circumstances 
in which the Creator has placed it. Monstrosities 

2 B* 



18 THE ADAPTATION OF 

rarely happen, and only confirm the rule; for they 
too occur according to certain laws, which prove 
still more clearly than could be proved without 
them, to our intellect at least, that the will, which 
designs, and the power which executes, calculated 
on the disorder that created will produces, and set 
bounds to its interference which can not be passed. 
We can not, with propriety, say that one com- 
plete animal is nobler than another, because of any 
prominence of particular organs as compared with 
its whole body ; nor is one creature to be called 
monstrous or ugly, in comparison with another, 
for each is exactly fitted to its place in the grand 
scale of existence, and therefore all are alike beau- 
tiful, as exhibiting the wonderful wisdom and be- 
neficence of God. But creation is graduated, and 
every creature has its proper place. The totality 
of an animal's framework indicates its position on 
the scale of being. If we measure man according 
to this standard, his superiority is at once evident 
Not that his body is distinguished by any marked 
excellence in those qualities which empower brutes, 
but by the symmetrical accordance of all its parts 
for superior purposes, under the direction of a will 
that can not truly sympathize with lower natures. 
" Os homini sublime dedit, coelumque tueri, 
Jussit et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus." 

This is a fine heathen sentiment, but not quite 
true ; for the eye of man was intended to search 
the earth as well as the heavens, and to behold 
Omnipotence in every part of the universal temple. 
The face is indeed the index of thought and sen- 
timent, the medium through which mind most 



THE BODY TO THE SOUL. 19 

vividly communicates with mind, but yet the whole 
body acts together in the full expression of feel- 
ing:— 

" Totamque infusa per artus, 
Mens agitat molem." 

Let us imagine a human figure as if now stand- 
ing before us, like the Apollo of the intellectual 
Greeks when he gazed on the smitten Python, 
We seem to see in this statue the visible idea or 
image of the man who aspired to be a god. At 
length he stands triumphant over the temptation 
and the tempter, content in the consciousness of 
a renovated and perfect humanity. Passion and 
intellect are blended in calm unison ; knowledge 
and affection are at peace ; the attributes of feel- 
ing, thought and action, are combined in one atti- 
tude, expressive of the delicate might of a living 
spirit. The mind reigns in that body. The in- 
carnate intelligence manifestly controls matter by 
his will, and appears as if conscious of being always 
resisted, yet never vanquished ; but, inspired by 
the apprehension of his right, as vicegerent of Al- 
mightiness, he subdues resistance and surmounts 
difficulties by perseverance in the use of strength, 
that continually and spontaneously increases with 
every opposition to his purpose. Such is man, 
when sustained by the divinity which stirs within 
him ; the only creature on which the Creator has 
shadowed divine perfections, and therefore he is to 
be honored even in his ruin ; for when his affections 
and faculties are restored, as they may be, to divine 
sympathy, he shall again stand upright, the con- 
queror of the mighty serpent. 



20 THE ADAPTATION OF 

We have looked upon man in his highest aspect, 

" God-like, erect, with Dative honor clad, 
In naked majesty." 

But even if we regard him in his most uncultivated 
condition, where the intellect is left to the freedom 
of the elements, and educated only by the forces 
of corporeal necessity, we yet shall see much indi- 
cation of his dignity. 

The wild barbarian awakes to action, and every 
movement speaks of thought. He is evidently in- 
fluenced by a world within him, where reflection 
and anticipation present incessant business for his 
spirit, and he will not live in the solitude of his 
own perceptions, but he seeks the higher pleasures 
of sociality and fellowship. His ideal existence is 
as actual as that of his body, and crowded with 
emotions. Memory and imagination people a 
world of their own, in the busy scenes of which he 
dwells more thoroughly and intimately than in that 
which is present to his outward senses. And he 
reveals his inner life by living language. He talks 
of what he feels, not only in words but also in the 
lineaments of his face, and while he speaks he 
stretches out his hand toward some object which 
may illustrate his words, or interest his companion, 
and thus by the very act of pointing, at once de- 
clares himself superior in endowment to every 
earthly creature, except his fellow-man; for no 
other holds rational discourse, or even possesses 
that simple adjunct to human intelligence, the 
power of distinctly and designedly pointing, to 
direct the attention of another. 

We say then that the existence of a resident and 



THE BODY TO THE SOUL. 21 

superintending mind, a thinking principle, an intel- 
ligent spirit operating upon the body, in it, not of 
it, might be inferred from the external form alone ; 
and the manner of every movement and expression 
of that form proves how perfectly it was adapted 
for the use of a guiding and dominant spirit, per- 
vading, informing, and employing it. 

As the habits of certain animals have been cor- 
rectly inferred from the examination of detached 
portions of their structure, so from almost any part 
of man's body we may at once discover that it was 
constructed for the accommodation and delight of 
an intellectual being. Even those disadvantages, 
in regard to the coarser physical qualities which 
lower animals possess, act but as stimuli to the 
human faculties, which supply all deficiencies, and 
confer the best accommodation. In fact, the excel- 
lence of man consists in the delicate adaptation of 
his structure, for without this the reasoning prin- 
ciple would be out of place. He is the most deli- 
cate creature on the earth, but yet he is not formed 
to hide himself. He must indeed be intrusted at 
first to the tenderest care of affection, to be nurtured 
into strength enough to endure the action of the 
elements amid which he is destined to dwell, yet 
he alone comes forth from his feeble infancy, erect, 
the observed, and the observer, with a mind to 
plan, and a hand to execute. The instrument is 
adapted to the agent — " Non enim manus ipsce 
homines artes docuerunt, sed ratio?'* But if man's 
body had been constituted on any inferior model, 
art and science could have had no outward exist- 
* Galen. 



22 THE ADAPTATION OF 

ence, and reason must have been imprisoned, in 
brute form. Supposing human knowledge then 
possible, man could only have been manifest as a 
subtil beast. " It is mind that makes the body 
rich/' but the soul needs a corresponding body, 
and God had wedded them together, in perfect 
suitability to their present business and abode. 

How inconceivably exact must be the adapta- 
tion of the body to the purposes of the mind ! 
The organs of sense and of action so instantane- 
ously and perfectly obey the demands of the will 
that in many of our most complicated and ordinary 
movements we are unconscious of having willed 
to employ the body, but it seems to have consented 
to anticipated intention in such a manner that we 
feel identified with it. So complete is the accord- 
ancy and assent between a healthy body and a 
sensual mind that some persons scarcely acquire a 
thought that takes them out of the body ; they live 
only in its sensations. The machine which they 
actuate is confounded with themselves, because it 
so admirably obeys their wills that they conceive 
no other enjoyment, and reach not so far as an 
idea of moral or spiritual excellence when habitu- 
ated to the pleasures of sense. 

While the system is in the highest state of health, 
that is, when best adapted for use, so great is the 
enjoyment of this perfect fitness that we can scarce- 
ly avoid putting our limbs into action, or as we 
say exerting ourselves, hence dancing becomes the 
natural expression of healthy gladness, for on these 
vigorous occasions we can not meditate, but our 
life and thought are altogether bent on muscular 



THE BODY TO THE SOUL. 23 

activity, or the use of the body irrespective of re- 
flection. This happy activity is beautifully exem- 
plified in healthy children, whose business appears 
to be merely to enjoy action and unmeaning pas- 
time, and to exercise the senses simply for the 
pleasure thus afforded. 

But how exquisitely the spirit becomes visible in 
every attitude and every feature of happy children ! 
We read their thoughts and feelings as perfectly as 
if their souls were our own. And were our minds 
and bodies attuned by love, we should find our- 
selves impelled by sympathy to join their sport. 
Like musical instruments of marvelous construc- 
tion, we are so strong that the air which causes vi- 
bration seems to breathe but in the music, and one 
string is no sooner struck than all awake in harmo- 
ny. And we are attuned to each other so perfect- 
ly, that under similar circumstances of health, being 
free from the dull pressure of care, all humanity 
will perhaps respond to one heart. 

But the science and execution of music affords 
us still better illustration. How nice a structure 
must be called into play when a skillful pianist, by 
aid of an additional instrument fitted to his conve- 
nience, executes an intricate piece of music, not only 
in a wonderfully rapid succession of mechanical 
movements, but also in a manner fully to express 
the very feelings of his soul ! But how much more 
forcibly is the same power manifested in the human 
voice ! By it the spirit speaks not only an infinite 
variety of articulated sounds, but more marvelously 
still by the modulated language of tones, so as to ex- 
cite into ecstacy or agony every sympathy within us. 



24 ADAPTATION OF THE BODY TO THE SOUL* 

What is it that so skillfully touches this instru- 
ment % What is it that enjoys as well as actuates, 
receives as well as communicates, through this in- 
scrutable organization ? It is, as we have said, the 
soul or spirit, without which this body were more 
unmeaning than a statue, and only fit, as it would 
tend, to decay. It is the soul which animates the 
features and causes them to present a living picture 
of each passion, so that the inmost agitations of the 
heart become visible in a moment, and the wish 
that would seek concealment betrays its presence 
and its power, in the vivid eye, while the blood kin- 
dles into crimson with a thought that burns along 
the brow. It is this which diffuses a sweet sereni- 
ty and rest upon the visage, when our feelings are 
tranquilized, and our thoughts abide with heaven, 
like ocean in a calm, reflecting the peaceful glories 
of the cloudless skies. This indwelling spirit of 
power blends our features into unison and harmony, 
and awakes "the music breathing from the face," 
when in association with those we love, and heart 
answering to heart, we live in sympathy, while 
memory and hope repose alike in smiles upon the 
bosom of enjoyment. It is a flame from heaven 
purer than Promethean fire, that vivifies and ener- 
gizes the breathing form. It is an immaterial es- 
sence, a being, that quickens matter and imparts 
life, sensation, motion, to the intricate framework 
of our bodies ; which wills when we act, attends 
when we perceive, looks into the past when we re- 
flect, and not content with the present, shoots with 
all its aims and all its hopes into the futurity that 
is forever dawning upon it. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE ORGANS OF SENSE ARE THE INSTRUMENTS OP 
THE MIND. 

Probably none but uncreated mind can act with- 
out being acted on, at least facts appear to demon- 
strate that the human spirit has no originating 
power, but is moved only as it is impressed by cir- 
cumstances and extraneous influences. Hence the 
necessity of its being supplied with instruments and 
senses, organized in keeping with the sphere which 
it inhabits, in order that its capacity for action might 
be elicited and manifested by agents appropriate to 
its innate functions and endowments. 

We are accustomed to say the eye sees, the ear 
hears, the finger feels, and so forth ; but such lan- 
guage is incorrect, and only admissible because we 
are accustomed to the error, and our expressions 
are necessarily accommodated to ignorance, or are 
not equal to our knowledge. The eye itself no 
more sees than the telescope which we hold before 
it to assist our vision. The ear hears not any more 
than the trumpet of tin, which the deaf man directs 
toward the speaker to convey the sound of his voice, 
and so with regard to all the organs of sense. They 
are but instruments which become the media of in- 
telligence to the absolute mind, which uses them, 
whenever that mind is inclined or obliged to em- 
C 



26 THE ORGANS OF SENSE 

ploy them. Or, perhaps, they might be more cor- 
rectly represented as the seats and proper places 
of impressions, because of their exact adaptation 
to external influences. They bear such relations to 
the condition of the materials which surround us, 
as, in the healthy state of their functions, always 
to present true and real intimations of circum- 
stances within the range of their faculty or forma- 
tion. 

The slightest examination of the organs of sense 
will, however, convince an observer that they are 
constructed merely as instruments. What is the 
eye but a most perfect optical contrivance ] It is 
composed of the best materials, arranged in the 
best manner, for the purpose of rendering illumi- 
nated objects not only visible, but tangible, for 
sight can be demonstrated to be a finer sort of feel- 
ing, the colors which represent distance and shape 
being brought in contact with the nerve, and with 
that which perceives in the nerve. The cornea is 
a most perfect convex glass, set distinctly in its 
proper place and proper manner, with the same 
design, but with far greater precision than the 
optician sets his crystal to aid the sight. The vari- 
ous translucent membranes, the lens, the humors of 
different densities, and even the blood, abruptly 
made transparent in its passage, and much beside, 
too minute to be now mentioned, conspire to trans- 
mit and duly refract, and regulate the rays of light, 
so that they may fall upon the exact point, and 
there present to the observant spirit a perfect 
picture of the majestic, the beautiful, the glorious ; 
and bring into our being those impressions which 



ARE THE INSTRUMENTS OF THE MIND. 27 

preserve our interest and sympathy with universal 
nature. No mechanism invented by man was ever 
so well contrived or so well placed, or could move 
so precisely as required under the action of its 
pulleys. No servant was ever so obedient; for, 
without a conscious effort of the will, without a com- 
mand, and as if instinct with the mind that employs 
it, this exquisite apparatus, which is both a camera- 
obscura and a telescope, instantaneously takes the 
direction of a desire, and accommodates itself to 
the range of distance and the degree of light. 

And the ear is a complete acoustic instrument, 
with its exterior trumpet to collect sounds, and its 
vibrating tympanum, and its chamber and winding 
passages, and its dense fluids, so well calculated to 
propagate and modify vibrations, and its minute 
and sensitive muscles, to act as cords to brace the 
drum, just as required, and to move the jointed 
piston, which regulates the water in its canals, ac- 
cording to circumstances, and the whole built up 
within a stone-like structure, which prevents the 
sound from being wasted. There is much of 
wisdom in the arrangement of this wonderful living 
instrument, as indeed in others also, the meaning 
of which human sagacity can not discover ; but this 
much however can always be ascertained, the pur- 
pose is to bring the mind into contact with that 
which it would know. 

The senses moreover correspond together, and 
thus enable the mind to correct the impressions of 
one by those of the others, in such a manner as, by 
their united operation to obtain full and accurate 
intelligence concerning the surrounding world. 



28 THE ORGANS OF SENSE 

The well-known case which the philosophic 
Cheselden has related affords a decisive experi- 
ment, agreeing as it does with many others, in proof 
that the information derived from the sense of sight 
requires to be corrected by information from dif- 
ferent sources, but that when the habit of seeing is 
established under this correction, vision continues 
to suggest the true relations of objects to each 
other. 

A young gentleman, who had no remembrance 
of ever having seen, was couched and received his 
sight ; but when he first saw he could not judge of 
distances, but thought all visible objects touched his 
eye, as what he felt touched his skin. He expected 
that pictures would feel like what they represented, 
and was amazed when he found those parts which 
by light and shadow appeared round and uneven, 
felt flat like the rest, and asked which was the lying 
sense, feeling or sight. When shown a miniature 
of his father, he acknowledged the likeness, but 
desired to know how it could be that so large a 
face could be expressed in so small a compass, 
saying it seemed as impossible to him as to put a 
bushel into a pint. The things he first saw he 
thought extremely large, and upon seeing larger 
things, those first seen he conceived less, not being 
able to imagine any lines beyond the bounds he 
beheld. He could not conceive that the house 
could look larger than the room he was in. He 
said every new object was a new delight. On first 
beholding a large prospect his pleasure was beyond 
expression, and he called it a new kind of seeing. 

These details prove, that sight does not origi- 



ARE THE INSTRUMENTS OF THE MIND. 29 

nally inform us respecting the real distance or 
magnitude of objects, but that we learn these 
things from the experience and help of our other 
senses ; therefore the mind exercises an independ- 
ent judgment in comparing their impressions, a 
power which the senses themselves could never 
have conferred. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE MIND IS NOT THE RESULT OF SENSATION. 

There is a disposition to exercise the senses 
from the enjoyment afforded by the act ; but this 
disposition of course resides, not in the organs, but 
in the mind, being the result of our mental consti- 
tution, in connection with nerves through which 
we discover suitable objects. The mind is excited 
by whatever is appropriate to it, and the senses 
are stimulated in sympathy with the mind, be- 
cause they are its organs, the means of action 
and enjoyment. Whatever pleases the mind the 
senses seek : the eye, light ; the ear, modulated 
sound ; the smell, fragrance ; the taste, flavor ; 
the touch, degrees of pressure ; and the muscles 
possess an agreeable sense of their own, arising 
probably from their pow r er of adjusting the body 
for the accommodation of the mind, in the exercise 
of the senses generally. 

What is meant by this adjustment will appear 
w T hen we reflect on the machinery which is con- 



30 THE MIND IS NOT 

sentaneously set in motion in the act of using 
either of the senses, but more especially, perhaps, 
sight and touch. It is not enough that the sensa- 
tion of a visible object should be present in the 
eye ; in order to look so as to examine an object, 
it is also necessary that the will be exerted. The 
first sensation of an object only serves as a stimu- 
lus to the appetite of the mind, to rouse its atten- 
tion, and excite the will, which, acting on the 
muscles, prepares the eye for further scrutiny, and 
at the same time places all the body in keeping 
with the state and desire of the mind, so that we 
can generally see from the attitude of a person 
how his eye is engaged. 

The muscular consent between the eye and the 
rest of the body, particularly the hand, is well shown 
in fencing, where every movement is guided, not 
by looking to see how the weapon should be di- 
rected, but by fixing your eye on your antagonist's 
eye : his intention there expressed, and acting as it 
were through your own eye on your nervous sys- 
tem, causes an instantaneous and instinctive ad- 
justment of your body accordingly. The same 
thing is exhibited, also, in the precision with which 
the savage hunter learns to direct his arrow, and 
the politer sportsman to point his gun. 

Here let us inquire — does organization produce 
the consciousness of self] No; for we feel or- 
ganization to be distinct from ourselves. The 
child just beginning to use its senses never con- 
founds the objects of sense with itself, and its own 
body is but one of these objects. The individual 
soul, which, by experience and suitable organs, 



THE RESULT OF SENSATION. 31 

manifests intellect or mind, not only perceives the 
sensations, and interprets them according to past 
experience, but it has an influence in modifying 
their impressions, and intensifying their effects ac- 
cording to certain laws which regulate its con- 
nection with the senses. 

Mind has the power of distinguishing sensations, 
and of causing one sense to be employed in pref- 
erence to another, and, to a certain extent, of 
correcting the impressions made on them all. The 
brain, connecting the senses together, enables the 
mind to employ them in relation to each other, 
and to compare sensation with sensation as re- 
gards time, space, and degree of force ; so that 
whatever interrupts or disturbs the regular func- 
tion of this connecting medium of all sense, the 
brain, necessarily causes the mind to perceive and 
to compare, in a disordered manner, as in de- 
lirium, insanity, and idiotism, or else the brain 
becomes so diseased that it altogether ceases to 
convey impressions from without, and thus per- 
chance allows the mind to proceed in its activity 
with the consciousness of past ideas, which it con- 
tinues to combine, according to the laws of its 
being, perhaps irrespective of physical association. 

However necessary the intelligence derived from 
the senses may be, to the development of mental 
capacity in this state of existence, it is yet evident 
that mind is not the result of sensation, nor, as to 
the origin of its peculiar faculties, at all dependent 
on the power of the senses; for in order to use 
them aright, and to obtain correct impressions 
through them, there must exist, inherently and 



32 THE MIND IS NOT 

antecedently, an ability in the mind or thinking 
principle, to attend and to compare. What is 
experience but the amount of impressions received 
by the mind ? It contributes nothing to the mental 
improvement, but as the mind possesses the power 
of judging — a power which no experience can 
itself confer, any more than the objects presented 
can produce the will that chooses between them. 

It is the prerogative of the thinking soul to learn 
by observation; that is, to employ the senses and 
to judge by analogy. But this implies that a reas- 
oning being is attending as soon as the senses are 
brought into exercise, and that it is prepared to 
work as soon as it finds materials to work with. 
Facts prove the truth of this position. According 
to the nature of the mind, residing in any body — 
supposing, of course, the body in health and fitted 
for it — so will be the exhibition of that mind. Its 
experience can never alter its nature. The edu- 
cation of the senses can never create a new mind. 
A brute can acquire no notion of moral truth by 
training, but a human soul is always rational, and 
from its earliest manifestation in the body, always 
reasons or infers correctly, according to the extent 
of its knowledge. " The child is father of the 
man." Though the senses which it uses are no 
better than a brute's, how vastly superior the re- 
sult of their employment ! The human being sees 
intuitively beyond sense, and venerates the un- 
known which the known indicates ; and while ex- 
perience administers to hope, chooses not merely ac- 
cording to appetite, but to conviction, for what he 
believes determines his actions ; and as his reason 



THE RESULT OF SENSATION. 33 

consents to truth, without demanding any other de- 
monstration than its fitness, so he lives in the enjoy- 
ment of what he expects as well as in what he real- 
izes. 

We must live by faith. We must trust, though 
we know that our senses often deceive us ; we 
must still rely, for our perceptions of sensible ob- 
jects depend on them. Moreover, we naturally 
believe what can not be demonstrated to our senses, 
for reason and conscience rest on convictions de- 
rived from a higher source. 

There is a correspondence or consent between 
the mind and nerves of sensation. The nerves 
being disordered, false impressions are received. 
Experience may correct them ; but it often happens 
that she is incompetent, or the defect may have 
been congenital ; then the mind manifests itself in a 
defective manner, and is said to be either idiotic or 
insane. The due relation between the senses and 
the soul — the link that connects them — is broken, and 
the thinking principle continues to act according to 
the power of the machinery with which it is asso- 
ciated, and according to its innate energy and con- 
sciousness. If that part of the nervous system be 
diseased in which the impressions of sense combine, 
that is, the central brain, then the faculties. of atten- 
tion and comparison are of course interfered with, 
or prevented from acting in proper order, and the 
individual so afflicted is insane. This disorder 
being removed, the man is restored to his senses ; 
for the mind itself can not be insane ; but it is al- 
ways able to act aright with a correct organization, 
or when there is no interference to disturb its func? 
3 



34 THH MIND IS NOT 

tions. How far the mind may be willfully pervert- 
ed, and attracted from the truth, it knows and thus 
become what may be called morally insane, will 
perhaps appear as we proceed. 

That the indwelling mind is ever ready to act 
in connection with a proper state of nerve, is beau- 
tifully exhibited in many cases of recovery from 
partial idiotism, in which the faculties and affections 
have lain dormant from infancy, till some circum- 
stance has altered the state of the brain so as to 
bring the mind into its proper relation with the 
exterior world, and enable it to manifest the won- 
derful endowments of reason by observing and 
comparing. 

Probably, in cases of idiotism, sensation is con- 
fused as well as the reflective faculties. There is 
an unsteadiness in the use of the senses, and an in- 
determinateness not unlike what we witness in per- 
sons who are overpowered by accumulated ner- 
vous excitement. It is manifestly a disease of the 
nerves, a disorder in the instruments of sensation, 
which hinders the mind from attending and cor- 
rectly applying them. Hence the soulless counte- 
nance, the rude mixture of instincts and passions, 
the unmeaning mirth, the transient fear, the gustly 
violence. This confusion of faculties and feelings 
has sometimes been reduced to order even in he- 
reditary idiotism. Light has touched the chaos 
into beauty; a slight interference has awakened 
the torpid soul ; an accident has removed the ob- 
struction between the intellect and the world : a 
fracture of the skull, a fit of frenzy, a fever has 
cured the disease, and the idiot ha& suddenly be* 



THE RESULT OF SENSATION. 35 

come an observant, reasoning man. Beings whose 
rudimentary senses seemed incapable of obedience 
to will, too restless to allow the soul proper inter- 
course with external nature, without moral senti- 
ments, without affections — mere instinctive animals, 
without associates in creation, yet possessing some 
unimaginable happiness in their own confused sen- 
sations and propensities — even such imbecile and 
w T orse than brutal enormities have, by the philo- 
sophic and Christian philanthropist, been brought 
into relation to other beings, redeemed from the 
dominion of disgusting appetites, and caused to 
seek intelligent enjoyment in loving and pleasing 
their instructors and friends. Many such idiots 
have been thus rendered visibly and mentally hu- 
man by the skillful patience with which M. Voisin, 
at the Bicetre, Paris, has employed means to attract 
their attention to an associating succession of ob- 
jects. If, then, the prison of the spirit has by such 
causes been converted into its pleasant palace, 
what shall hinder the soul of an idiot from enjoying 
at death its emancipation from the impeding body 
and its entrance on a commodious abode. Surely 
the intelligent principle within them requires only 
to be put into proper relation with the world it in- 
habits to develop its capacity for knowledge and 
happiness. 

The same important truth is demonstrated in 
those instances in which some deficiency in the 
organization of the senses has shut up the soul 
from the enjoyment of its appropriate objects, as 
in the cases of deaf mutes. And is not ignorance 
deaf, blind, dumb, unfeeling ? And is not educa- 



36 THE MIND IS NOT THE RESULT OF SENSATION. 

tion the quickener of the soul, enabling it to burst 
from the grave, to see, taste, handle the things of 
life ? 

What a delightful and heavenly occupation is it 
to set at large an immortal spirit from silent, 
speechless, dark imprisonment ! How ecstatic the 
interest to watch the gladdening being gradually 
liberated from its living tomb, and brought into 
rapturous sympathy with other souls ! The person 
who can peruse Dr. Howe's narrative of Laura 
Bridgman's case without emotion, such as a father 
feels in regarding his own new-born child, which he 
loves because created in his own likeness, is not a 
Christian, and has not yet had a glimpse of the vision 
which reveals the beauty and value of a human 
spirit. 



CHAPTER IV. 

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE VALUE OF THE SENSES, AND 
OBSERVATIONS ON THEIR USE. 

Laura Bridgman was completely deprived of 
sight and hearing at an early period of childhood. 
She was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, on 
the 21st December, 1829. Doctor Howe, her 
great benefactor and friend, has published an ex- 
ceedingly interesting narrative, from which, or 
rather from that part of it given in Dickens's 
" American Notes," the following paragraphs are 
extracted : "As soon as she could walk she began 
to explore the room and the house ; she became 
familiar with the form, density, weight, and heat of 
every article she could lay her hands upon. She 
followed her mother, and felt her hands and arms 
as she was occupied about the house ; and her dis- 
position to imitate led her to repeat every thing 
herself; she even learned to sew a little, and to 
knit. At this time I was so fortunate as to hear 
of the child, and immediately hastened to Hanover 
to see her. I found her with a well-formed figure, 
a strongly -marked nervous-sanguine temperament, 
a large and beautifully-shaped head, and the whole 
system in healthy action. The parents were easily 
induced to consent to her coming to Boston ; and 
on the 4th October, 1837, they brought her to the 
D 



38 THE VALUE OF THE SENSES, 

institution. After waiting about two weeks, the 
attempt was made to give her knowledge of arbi- 
trary signs, by which she could interchange thoughts 
with others. There was one of two ways to be 
adopted : either to go on to build up a language 
of signs which she had already commenced her- 
self, or to teach her the purely arbitrary language 
in common use ; that is, to give her a sign for 
every individual thing, or to give her a knowl- 
edge of letters, by combination of which she might 
express her idea of the existence, and the mode 
and condition of existence, of any thing. The 
former would have been easy, but very ineffectual ; 
the latter seemed very difficult, but, if accomplish- 
ed, very effectual. I determined therefore to try 
the latter." 

After describing the interesting process by which 
he taught her to associate names with things, he 
goes on to say, " Hitherto the process had been 
mechanical, and the success about as great as 
teaching a knowing dog a variety of tricks. The 
poor child had sat in mute amazement, and pa- 
tiently imitated every thing her teacher did; but 
now the truth began to flash upon her : her intel- 
lect began to work; she perceived that here was 
a way by which she could herself make up a sign 
of any thing that was in her own mind, and show 
it to another mind, and at once her countenance 
lighted up with a human expression; it was no 
longer a dog, or a parrot ; it was an immortal 
spirit, eagerly seizing upon a new link of union 
with other spirits ! I could almost fix upon the 
moment when the truth first dawned upon her 



AND OBSERVATIONS ON THEIR USE. 39 

mind, and spread its light to her countenance ; I 
saw that the great obstacle was overcome, and that 
henceforward nothing but patient and persevering, 
but plain and straightforward efforts were to be 
used." 

At the end of the year a report of the case was 
made, of which the following is an extract : "It has 
been ascertained, beyond the possibility of doubt, 
that she can not see a ray of light, can not hear the 
least sound, and never exercises her sense of smell, 
if she has any. Thus her mind dwells in darkness 
and stillness, as profound as that of a closed tomb 
at midnight. Of beautiful sights, and sweet sounds, 
and pleasant odors she has no conception; never- 
theless she is as happy and playful as a bird or a 
lamb ; and the employment of her intellectual facul- 
ties, or the acquirement of a new idea, gives her a 
vivid pleasure, which is plainly marked in her ex- 
pressive features." 

Describing the interesting process by which he 
taught her to associate names with things, he goes 
on to say, " If she have no occupation she evidently 
amuses herself by imaginary dialogues, or by re- 
calling past impressions ; she counts with her fingers, 
or spells out names of things which she has recently 
learned, in the manual alphabet of the deaf mutes. 
In this lonely self-communion she seems to reason, 
reflect, and argue. But wonderful as is the rapidity 
with which she writes her thoughts upon the air, still 
more so is the ease and rapidity with which she reads 
the words thus written; grasping their hands in 
hers, and following every movement of their 
fingers, as letter after letter conveys their meaning 



40 THE VALUE OF THE SENSES, 

to her mind. It is in this way that she converses 
with her blind playmates, and nothing can more 
forcibly show the power of mind in forcing matter 
to its purpose, than a meeting between them. For 
if great skill and talent are necessary for two pan- 
tomimes to paint their thoughts and feelings by the 
movements of the body and the expression of the 
countenance, how much greater the difficulty when 
darkness shrouds them both, and the one can hear 
no sound! When Laura is walking through a 
passage-way, with her hands spread before her, she 
knows instantly every one she meets, and passes 
them with a sign of recognition; but if it be a girl 
of her own age, and especially if it be one of her 
favorites, there is instantly a bright smile of rec- 
ognition and a twining of arms, a grasping of 
hands, and a swift telegraph upon the tiny fingers." 
Her mother came to visit her, and the scene of 
their meeting was an interesting one. " The 
mother stood some time gazing, with overflowing 
eyes, upon her unfortunate child, who, all uncon- 
scious of her presence, was playing about the room. 
Presently Laura ran against her, and at once began 
feeling her hands, examining her dress, and trying 
to find out if she knew her ; but not succeeding in 
this, she turned away as from a stranger, and the 
poor woman could not conceal the pang she felt 
at finding that her beloved child did not know her. 
She then gave Laura a string of beads which she 
used to wear at home, which were recognized by 
the child at once, who with much joy put them 
round her neck and sought me eagerly, to say that 
she understood the string was from her home. The 



AND OBSERVATIONS ON THEIR USE. 41 

mother now tried to caress her; but poor Laura 
repelled her, preferring to be with her acquaint- 
ances. Another article from home was now given 
her, and she began to look much interested. After 
a while, on her mother taking hold of her again, a 
vague idea seemed to flit across Laura's mind that 
this could not be a stranger ; she therefore felt her 
hands very eagerly, while her countenance assum- 
ed an expression of intense interest : she became 
very pale and then suddenly red; hope seemed 
struggling with doubt and anxiety, and never were 
contending emotions more strongly painted upon 
the human face. At this moment of painful uncer- 
tainty, the mother drew her close to her side and 
kissed her fondly, when at once the truth flashed 
upon the child, and all mistrust and anxiety disap- 
peared from her face, as, with an expression of ex- 
ceeding joy, she eagerly nestled to the bosom of her 
parent, and yielded herself to her fond embrace." 

The subsequent parting between them showed 
alike the affection, the intelligence, and the reso- 
lution of the child. "Laura accompanied her mother 
to the door, clinging close to her all the way, until 
they arrived at the threshold, where she paused 
and felt around to ascertain who was near her. 
Perceiving the matron, of whom she is very fond, 
she grasped her with one hand, holding on convul- 
sively to her mother with the other, and thus she 
stood for a moment ; then she dropped her mother's 
hand, put her handkerchief to her eyes, and turning 
round, clung sobbing to the matron, while her 
mother departed with emotions as deep as those of 
her child." 

D* 



42 THE VALUE OF THE SENSES, 

" She is fond of having other children noticed and 
caressed by the teachers and those whom she re- 
spects ; but this must not be carried on too far, or 
she becomes jealous. She wants to have her share, 
which, if not the lion's, is the greater part ; and if 
she does not get it, she will say, 'My mother will 
love me. 9 Her tendency to imitation is so. strong, 
that it leads her to actions which must be entirely 
incomprehensible to her, and which can give her 
no other pleasure than the gratification of an inter- 
nal faculty. She has been known to sit for half 
an hour holding a book before her sightless eyes, 
and moving her lips as she (by the help of her fin- 
gers) has observed other people do when reading. 
Her social feelings and her affections are very 
strong ; and when she is sitting at work, or at her 
studies by the side of one of her little friends, she 
will break off from her task every few moments, 
and hug and kiss them with an earnestness and 
warmth that is touching to behold. When left 
alone, she occupies and, apparently, amuses herself, 
and seems quite contented; and so strong seems 
to be the natural tendency of thought to put on the 
garb of language, that she often soliloquizes in the 
finger language, slow and tedious as it is. But it 
is only when alone that she is quiet ; for if she be- 
comes sensible of the presence of any one near her, 
she is restless until she can sit close beside them, 
hold their hand, and converse with them by signs. 
In her intellectual character it is pleasing to ob- 
serve an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and a 
quick perception of the relations of things. In her 
moral character it is beautiful to behold her con- 



AND OBSERVATIONS ON THEIR USE. 43 

tinual gladness, her keen enjoyment of existence, 
her expansive love, her unhesitating confidence, 
her sympathy with suffering, her conscientious- 
ness, truthfulness, and hopefulness." 

So long a quotation may need an apology, es- 
pecially as the work from which it has been taken 
is of a popular kind and extensively read. A mere 
allusion, however, to facts which so powerfully il- 
lustrate the subject of this work would not suffice, 
and an abridgment would be an injustice. Nei- 
ther Dr. Howe nor the reader can desire the cur- 
tailment of so triumphant a story, which affords 
something very like a demonstration, not only that 
the mind depends not entirely on the senses for its 
powers, but also that it possesses a distinct exist- 
ence, and calls "the body mine, not me." Laura 
clearly evinces a moral perception of right and 
wrong, which could not have been taught her but 
through an innate moral consciousness. Indeed, 
moral feeling can not, in any person, have sprung 
from mere conventional knowledge, but from a 
consenting faculty independent on education, ac- 
knowledging the fitness or unfitness, propriety or 
impropriety, of any act in relation of mind to mind. 
She was fond of having other children noticed and 
caressed. She felt the worth of love that delights 
in the happiness of associates, and she appreciated 
others by the kindness which their conduct evinced 
toward herself. She thus acknowledged the true 
law of Heaven, written on her heart, not by man's 
teaching, but by the finger of God. She could feel 
the force of the royal commandment " Do unto oth- 
ers as you would they should do to you" and needed 



44 THE VALUE OF THE SENSES, 

only to know the truth in order to approve it, be- 
cause of its felt fitness to her moral nature and her 
relationship to other beings. There can be no rea- 
son, therefore, that she should be without religious 
feelings. The true object of veneration can be 
presented to her apprehension, and that not merely 
as regards her conceptions of infinite power and 
duration, but also as to the moral attributes. At 
least she could be made to understand her own 
sentiment in a higher sense, and be as ready to 
say, " God loves me" as that her mother loves her. 
Dr. Fowler, of Salisbury, suggests that she might 
be taught the idea of infinity by her idea of esti- 
mating distance, and of eternity by time. Certain- 
ly imagination would oppose no barrier to the ques- 
tions — why should not this measure be prolonged 
without end ] why not this consciousness last for- 
ever ? Here then we have through the same rea- 
son, the sublime st conception of a Newton engraft- 
ed on the soul of a deaf, blind, speechless girl, 
taught by the nature of her own feelings and affec- 
tions what materialists dare not claim for any ar- 
rangement of matter — Infinite power and Eternal 
love ! 

Several illustrative and striking instances of a 
similar kind are recorded. Dugal Stewart read 
an interesting paper before the Royal Society, con- 
cerning a man fifty years of age, named James 
Mitchell. He was without speech, sight, and hear- 
ing, but not without affections. His sister could 
communicate her wishes to him, and the willful- 
ness of his impetuous disposition yielded with the 
docility of a little child to the touch of her loving 



AND OBSERVATIONS ON THEIR USE. 45 

hand. His soul seems to have created a diversified 
world of its own out of two elements, for by feel- 
ing and smell alone he acquired his sublime knowl- 
edge. These, his only senses, were spiritually 
acute, because he intently observed then- intima- 
tions, and they furnished him with almost super- 
natural intelligence. He evidently inferred from 
feeling more than is commonly derived from that 
faculty, and experienced exquisite delight, as his 
actions expressed, from testing the many tangible 
properties of bodies within his reach. His curios- 
ity was unbounded, and his invention fertile. He 
kneeled at family prayers as if he fully understood 
the meaning of the attitude. And does it not ne- 
cessarily express humility and hope ] Would not 
the bending of the knees, and the lifting up of the 
hands, and the quiet waiting, have indicated to him 
the idea of dependence on some present but yet 
intangible power from whom his own being was 
derived ] Our very frame-work, properly employ- 
ed, teaches us of Grod's power and goodness, and 
the act of assuming a devout attitude is perhaps 
necessarily associated with reverential ideas, as the 
result of a natural law of our physiological and 
mental existence, as long as our minds are not pos- 
sessed by impure ideas. The position of weak- 
ness and want is an appeal to Omnipotence, and 
we feel it to be so. 

This man heard the voice of God in his heart, 
more distinctly than many who receive the word 
of life and immortality with the outward ear; 
and this word was visible to the sight of his soul, 
although his eye drank not the light. He shrunk 



46 THE VALUE OP THE SENSES, 

back in horror from the corpse of his father, for 
he recognized death, and never would rest in the 
room where the dead body had been laid; but, 
some time afterward, he took a stranger into the 
apartment, placed his hand a moment on the pil- 
low where his father's head had rested, hurried 
his companion to the grave, and patted it with his 
hand. This could not have been the expression of 
his hopelessness, but of his unbroken relationship 
to a living father, and of his expectation of life 
beyond the tomb. 

All the facts concerning the use of the senses 
demonstrate, in short, that the soul possesses in- 
tuitive endowments which the senses could not 
confer; for the faculty of using them is mental, 
and must of course precede their use. Our senses 
are constituted for this world, and we enjoy it; 
our undeveloped spirits are constituted in cor- 
respondence with another world, and we shall 
enter it. 

" Even so the soul in this contracted state, 
Confined to these straight instruments of sense, 
More dull and narrowly doth operate ; 
At this hole hears, the sight may ray from thence, 
Here tastes, there smells ; but when she's gone from hence, 
Like naked lamp she is one shining sphere, 
And round about hath perfect cognizance, 
Whatever in her horizon doth appear, 
She is one orb of sense : all eye, all touch, all ear." 

Moor, 1650. 

The practical inference from facts concerning 
the use of our senses is simply the propriety of 
taking care to employ them suitably, to preserve 
and improve them, since our social comfort and 



AND OBSERVATIONS ON THEIR USE. 47 

influence, as well as our intellectual advancement, 
depend in this world on their integrity. Their 
destruction is the exclusion of knowledge and 
wisdom at their only entrances. Delicacy of per- 
ception is essential to acuteness of intellect ; but 
perception is perfected rather by the power and 
habit of attention in the use of the senses than by 
keenness of sensation. 

After reading such beautiful narratives as that 
of Laura Bridgman, how easy is it to imagine a 
human spirit untainted by the loveless experiences 
of this selfish world, and released from a body so 
stamped with the physical image of inherited moral 
disorder, as to be incapable of any distinct idea. 
We can imagine the soul of an idiot, for instance, 
set free from the body, the tomb in which Omnipo- 
tence had interred it, only the better to show forth 
His glory. Doubtless many a maternal heart that 
loves the mature idiot, as the babe nestled in help- 
lessness on the bosom, is cheered by this thought. 
We may watch its entrance into a world of light, 
beauty, and love ; there to be educated by angels 
instead of a man, even though such as he who 
trained Laura Bridgman, and who seemed indeed 
to have been actuated by a feeling of angelic pur- 
pose and charity. How rapid the progress of this 
unshackled soul in divine learning ! How rap- 
turous its joy at the wonders of wisdom every- 
where visible ! how unutterable the fullness of its 
sympathy with heavenly affections ! And what 
human child is not capable of the same expansion 
amid the genial influences of heaven, though here 
it may have been shut up in a body unfit for mind, 



48 THE VALUE OF THE SENSES, 

or left at its birth apparently to perish. The spirit 
was there struggling for mastery. The germ of 
immortality was in it, and that seed shall live and 
grow, in spite of visible death and decay, far above 
the evil that would cling about its first tendencies 
to take root in this earth's accursed soil. 

By thus simply gazing in fancy on a naked soul, 
we see a ray of light opening into eternity ; we 
seem to get a glimpse at all the reconciling possi- 
bilities, which we so much need to explain to us 
the reason of our present mysterious and incongru- 
ous existence. But imagination would reveal a 
vision too vast and glorious for our present sight. 
What is possible we must not inquire. What we 
know not now we shall know hereafter. Facts 
present are intended to instruct us, and if we duly 
observe them they will be ours forever, and we 
shall trace their connection with futurity. Rational 
inferences from facts are not, however, mere airy 
surmises, but solid truths ; and every expectation, 
fairly founded on experience, is of the nature of 
true prophecy, being consistent with the universal 
reason by which all events are ordered. Hence 
the propriety of investigation, and hence the fore- 
seeing sagacity which really scientific and truthful 
inquiry always confers. Hence, also, the strength 
of true religious convictions, and the assurance, 
the evidence of things not seen,— the substance 
and reality of things hoped for. Any single truth, 
followed up in all its relations, connects us with all 
other truth. Like the light, however various its 
manifestations, it is one in its nature, and it ema- 
nates from one source, to which it necessarily con- 



AND OBSERVATIONS ON THEIR USE. 49 

ducts the eye of all who will look off from the 
objects it illuminates to the fountain of light itself. 
Since truths are thus connected in one system, 
facts can never lead reason astray. She has 
power to examine evidence, and will not receive 
into her belief any notion which is incompatible 
with analogy. Not to compare impression with 
experience, is not to reason, but to act like a cer- 
tain naval officer, holding a very responsible situa- 
tion, who was very fond of making telescopic 
observations. Among other strange things, he 
solemnly asserted, that when Napoleon abdicated 
in 1814, he saw the Emperor's figure in the sun. 
The next day the figure appeared like a skeleton, 
and on the third day the united colors of the allies 
had taken its place. These appearances were 
regularly entered in the log-book, and several of 
the crew were ready to testify to the accuracy of 
the captain's observations. Such facts only prove 
that the mind may be so deceived by its own de- 
sires as to employ the senses to confirm its errors. 
Reason, then, is a better and more certain guide 
than the senses. She enables us to discern the 
folly of believing according to sight. She looks 
deeper than the superficies of things, and enjoys 
the consciousness of realities belonging to a region 
too bright for any eye but her own to gaze on. 
She needs no telescope nor credulous witness to 
confirm her faith in those truths which dwell in 
the light she is accustomed to contemplate, and 
which are commended to the mind of man by 
their fitness to promote his advancement in knowl- 
edge, virtue, and happiness. Had not man the 
4 E 



50 THE VALUH OF THE SENSES. 

faculty of perceiving truths beyond the sphere of 
sense, he would be no better than an irresponsible 
brute; and the fact that man infers and travels on 
in reason beyond material things, is itself a proof 
that his mind is not material. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE CONNECTION OF THE MIND WITH THE BRAIN, ETC. 

A few words concerning the definite nature of 
matter will conduct us to a consideration of the 
connection of the mind with the brain. 

The divisibility of matter has led to curious dis- 
cussion, some saying that if matter can not be di- 
vided and subdivided without end, and still remain 
possessed of dimensions, etc., then it must either 
become spirit or be annihilated. Such a notion of 
matter is absurd, for it involves the belief of one 
of three impossibilities : the conversion of brute 
matter into a thinking principle, its withdrawal 
from existence, or its capability of being divided 
infinitely, that is, that every imaginary particle of 
matter may be still divided into as many parts as 
there are moments in eternity ! Such reasoners 
seem to forget that the properties of matter are 
imposed by Omnipotence. The will of His wis- 
dom limits all things, even the exercise of His 
own power. Those materialists who have lost all 
idea of Deity in their study of the physical world, 
might have learned a different conclusion even 
from the law of chemical combination, by which 
the elements unite to each other in certain pro- 



52 THE CONNECTION OF 

portions. Matter must have been made in defi- 
nite atoms, or how should different chemical ele- 
ments always combine by weight and measure, in 
exact order and proportion, — so much of one to so 
much of another, and in no other manner ? The 
reason of this universal fact we can understand, 
when we conceive that so many definite atoms of 
one element combine with so many definite atoms 
of another. If there be not definite atoms, how 
can there be definite combinations ? 

It has also been said, that God could cause 
matter to think. Who can say yes ] He has not 
made us capable of thinking so. We can not con- 
ceive of such matter, for the words thought and 
matter always present inconvertible and contra- 
dictory ideas; because our rational consciousness 
assures us that thought has no analogy to any 
known property of matter. 

The mental unity, which each man calls J, can 
not exist as a part of the body ; for what part can 
we suppose to be a unit, either in structure, func- 
tion, or substance % The soul, being one, " spreads 
undivided, operates unspent,' ' and confers a kind 
of unity upon the organization which it employs, 
by the act of using it for one purpose at a time. 
It is but one will that enforces the obedience of 
the body, therefore no diversity of division in the 
organization can destroy the impression of our 
unity in volition and feeling. " If joy or sorrow," 
observes Dr. Brown, " be an affection of the brain, 
it is an affection of various substances, which, 
though distinct in their own existences, we compre- 
hend under this single term. If the affection there- 



THE MIND WITH THE BRAIN. 53 

fore be common to the whole, it is not one joy or 
6orrow, but a number of joys and sorrows, corre- 
sponding with the number of separate particles 
thus affected ; which, if matter be infinitely divis- 
ible, may be divided into an infinite number of 
little joys or sorrows, that have no other relation 
to each other than the relations of proximity, by 
which they may be grouped together in spheres 
and cubes, or other solids, regular or irregular, 
of pleasures or pains ; but by which it is im- 
possible for them to become one pleasure or 
pain." 

There are several reasons for believing that the 
mind is not confined to the brain, such as the prop- 
agation of the lower species of animals by spon- 
taneous division, each separate part having a 
distinct will and special desires. Then again in 
the generation of man, — -the germ and fecundating 
fluid, being productions of separate individuals, 
when brought together produce a new individual 
in the likeness of the parents. Hence the mental 
principle, if it be propagated and not rather added 
to life, when this is developed in certain organiza- 
tions, must exist in other parts of the body beside 
the brain, and be capable of continuing in a latent 
state. I£ then the mental principle be not limited 
to the brain, it follows that the destruction of the 
brain does not necessarily destroy the mind, but 
only prevents its ordinary manifestation ; and if it 
be something superadded to the body, there is no 
reason why it should not exist with all its thoughts 
out of the body. 

M. Flouren's experiments are too numerous and 

E* 



54 THE CONNECTION OF 

extensive to quote; but they prove that the brain 
may be destroyed to a large extent, in any direc- 
tion, without destroying any of its functions ; but 
when the nervous mass, connecting the organs of 
the senses and their sympathies together, is divided, 
the manifestation of mind is interrupted. It fol- 
lows inevitably from his experiments, that the 
faculty of perceiving and desiring one object 
operates on the same organ as the faculty of per- 
ceiving and comparing any other object, and there- 
fore the different affections are not functions of 
different parts of the brain, as some phrenologists 
assert, but of that which uses the brain under 
various states of impression, according to its indi- 
vidual nature and experience. 

In mental derangement, — attention, judgment, 
memory, volition, are always more or less disor- 
dered ; and yet in the common phrenological sys- 
tems these are not represented in any part of the 
brain, nor can be ; therefore these essential prin- 
ciples of mental action must be something more 
than functions of the brain. As far as I can 
discover, by examination of a multitude of recorded 
cases, attention, judgment, memory, and volition 
may be all freely exercised by persons in whom 
many of the organs appropriated by phrenologists 
to the intellect are destroyed or disordered by 
disease ; but these operations of mind become 
deranged whenever the nervous center is rendered 
incapable of performing its function, in energizing 
the body, so as to hinder the mind from putting 
itself and the senses into proper relation: to external 
influences and to each other ; therefore I infer that 



THE MIND WITH THE BRAIN. 55 

mental insanity, and even what we call uncon- 
sciousness, are only the results of physical impedi- 
ment to the united and associated action of nerve 
under the operation of mind, which is benevolently 
constituted to be manifested to other minds only in 
connection with a certain state of organization. 

Insanity, like certain dreams, seems generally to 
be a kind of confusion, arising from a mixture of 
memory with present impressions. The conscious- 
ness, or the sense of each of the two states that 
belong to the mind, is not kept perfectly distinct 
as it is in the sound condition of the brain, but the 
attention is divided between remembered ideas 
and sensible realities, the one being mistaken for 
the other. Of course it is the same individual 
being which perceives the idea as it exists in the 
mind, as a remembered thing, and also the present 
impression conveyed at the moment through either 
of the senses. 

One of the outrageous consequences of receiving 
the vulgar phrenological doctrines in their full ex- 
travagance has been an attempt to prove, on scien- 
tific principles, that the soul itself is double, because 
the organs of the body are. But we have seen that 
the unity of the mind is not broken in consequence 
of its connection with a plurality of organs, and 
surely it as easily reasons from the impressions of 
two brains as it sees with two eyes. That the two 
grand divisions of the brains are practically, as well 
as anatomically, two brains, is proved by a number 
of cases in which memory and the other functions 
of- the mind have been exercised without apparent 
impairment, in persons who have had one hemi- 



56 THE CONNECTION OF 

sphere so destroyed by disease as to leave no por- 
tion of its substance in a natural state. 

Tiedemann relates the case of a lunatic, who was 
insane on one side of his head, and who observed 
and corrected his insanity with the other. Now it 
may be asked, who observed and corrected the 
insanity 1 The man certainly, not one half of him. 
No doubt the diseased brain could not be employed 
without occasioning disordered manifestation of 
mind ; and, of course, as long as the other half of 
his brain was awake and obedient to the will, he 
could perceive and rebuke the dreamy absurdities 
connected with the other. He compared the dis- 
eased perception and action with the healthy, and 
felt at once which was consistent with waking ex- 
perience ; and therefore, by the by, he could have 
been but half a lunatic at the worst, and that only 
when the sound part of his head was awake. Such 
cases, after all, scarcely differ from those in which 
individuals consciously labor under illusions of 
sense, and are able to rectify false impressions by 
comparison with true-. 

To argue from the duality of the organs, that the 
mind, which is manifested through them, is also 
dual, is really the same as to argue that two minds 
are employed to see with two eyes or hear with 
two ears. But consciousness is never double, and 
attention is never divided. Transition from thought 
to thought and subject to subject may be more 
rapid than the light, but yet it is the act of one and 
the same mind, to pass from thought to thought, 
comparing one with another, and drawing conclu- 
sions according to experience. The mind has 



THE MIND WITH THE BRAIN. 57 

doubtless double dealing enough in the midst of 
its mixed motives and clashing interests ; but if we 
are to infer from hence that there are two minds, it 
will puzzle the judge to determine which mind is 
at fault and to be punished when the double-minded 
man commits a murder ; for surely one half of him, 
at least, and probably the more perfect, is innocent. 
How unjust to hang a whole man for the will of 
only one side of him. Alas ! the ingenious plea 
will never save him, for common sense is single. 
Surely it is a very one-sided reasoning which re- 
duces a man of science thus to do things by halves, 
and divide the responsibility between his two voli- 
tions. It is to be feared that morality and religion 
will slip between them and find a place in neither. 
Bishop Taylor shall pass sentence on this subject: 
" He that will pretend any thing that is beyond 
ordinary, as he that will say that he has two rea- 
sonable souls, or three wills, is not to be confuted 
but with physic, or by tying him to abjure his folly 
till he were able to prove it." 

Acuteness of faculty depends on the power of 
maintaining attention ; but this power is interfered 
with by any disorder of the nervous system, because 
attention itself is an act of the mind, by which the 
nervous system is put into a condition to obey the 
soul, to receive impressions from without, or to 
operate on muscle. The purpose for which we 
possess a duality of organization appears then to 
be, that we may be able to attend the longer with- 
out fatigue and confusion ; for we rest the one 
side while employing the other. If, therefore, we 
are deprived of the use of an eye, for instance, we 



58 CONNECTION OF THE MIND WITH THE BRAIN. 

the sooner find the other to fail, unless it be the 
more sparingly engaged. This principle is per- 
haps the secret of sympathy between the two sides 
of our bodies. Probably the duality of the brain 
serves a purpose similar to that of the duality of 
the senses. In some relations to the mind, the 
double arrangement enables us to continue think- 
ing or acting consecutively for a longer time than 
would otherwise be possible : the one rests while 
the other acts, and so on alternately, until both 
alike demand the repose and refreshment to be 
obtained only by sleep. 



CHAPTER VI. 

EVILS OF POPULAR PHRENOLOGY. 

The dangerous tendency of tlie popular notions 
of phrenology is most evident in the excuses it 
supplies to those who seek apologies for their moral 
depravity, and in the impediments it builds up in 
the way of those inquisitive minds that expect to 
find in nature a substitute for revelation. Many, 
convinced of the authority of the Bible, yet seem 
to see so much of demonstration in this pseudo- 
science at variance with the declarations of that 
strong book, that they are constantly hanging in 
suspense between the ruling faith, in the spiritual 
origin of thought, and the vacillating persuasion of 
the material beginning and end of mind. With 
such persons, morality and Christianity are thus 
at stake. A thorough, uncompromising, common 
phrenologist must apologize if he exhibit respect 
for either divine or human government; since a 
will that owns no source but in the accidents of a 
man's organization can have no relation to the law 
which demands obedience for the common good. 
What good can there be to a mind unassociated, 
and indeed not existing, but with the body, except 
the individual's physical good % What community 



60 EVILS OF POPULAR PHRENOLOGY. 

of interest can there be except among spiritual 
beings, that reason, love, and hate on principles 
and under laws altogether distinct from any that 
regulate material combinations and results ? 

If degrees of criminality, as some men teach, be 
determined by the relative development of portions 
of our brains, and not according to the degree of 
our knowledge and the kind of motives presented 
to our reason, through our affections in our training, 
then the language of the Great Teacher is a vio- 
lence to our nature, — " If I had not come and spoken 
unto them, they had not had sin : but now they have 
no cloke for their sinP These words appear to have 
no meaning, unless they signify that the extent of 
man's accountableness is commensurate with the 
degree of holy truth applied to his understanding. 

Although some of the prominent advocates of 
phrenology undoubtedly regard that somewhat 
rickety science as affording irresistible arguments 
in favor of the material theory of mind, and hence 
infer that the soul perishes with the body; yet 
there are many more who, most heartily following 
their confident leaders, believe themselves per- 
suaded that phrenology is only a little less certain 
than the Gospel ; and who nevertheless would not 
for the world forego their convictions of a spiritual 
and immortal existence. Some have taken a kind 
of middle ground, and while stanch in their attach- 
ment to the Christian creed, yet imagining they pos- 
sess proof in phrenological facts that the soul has 
no being without the body, they have endeavored 
to prove to their own satisfaction that the Bible re^ 
veals not a word concerning the distinct existence 



EVILS OF POPULAR PHRENOLOGY. 61 

of the human spirit, but rather that it declares an 
utter death of both soul and body as derived from 
Adam. But then they dare not deny that an eter- 
nal life and bodily resurrection are promised and 
secured in Christ; so they are brought to the con- 
clusion, that when a man dies he is annihilated as 
an individual being, and by the power of God is 
reproduced on some future occasion. Dr. Elliot- 
son, president of the Phrenological Society, thus 
states, in the Lancet, the position which he adopts : 
" By nature all die, are utterly extinguished ; and 
in another order of things, when the fashion of this 
world shall have passed away and time shall be no 
more, then in Christ, by the additional gift of God 
granted through the obedience of Christ, but con* 
sequently by a miracle, not by our nature, we shall 
all again be made alive.' ' If Christianity be true, 
then science, that is, the classification of natural 
facts, will never contradict it ; for God must be the 
author of both. The scientific part of phrenology 
is therefore perfectly compatible with revelation. 
But infidelity has deeply stained the speculative and 
baseless assumptions which hasty reasoners have at- 
tached to that as well as other inquiries. It is, how- 
ever, delightful to find that men of the profoundest 
science most reverentially acknowledge that man 
and Christianity are productions of the same mind, 
and that there is nothing in any science at variance 
with the New Testament. Yet I can not help think- 
ing that Dr. Elliotson, whom we must believe to be a 
sincere Christian, on his own confession of hope for 
eternal life through Jesus Christ, has followed a 
false interpretation in the passage above quoted; 
F 



62 EVILS OF POPULAR PHRENOLOGY. 

for how is it to be reconciled with these texts ] — 
" Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never 
die." " This day shalt thou he with me in para- 
dise" " We are confident and willing to be absent 
from the body and to be present with the Lord." 
" For we know that if our earthly house of this tab- 
ernacle were dissolved, we have a house not made 
tvith hands, eternal in the heavens" These sen- 
tences seem plainly to express the fact of a spiritual 
existence, or being, at present distinct from the 
body, and capable of existence at once in another 
sphere. An array of arguments is not needed — 
this is sufficient; unless such language, and the 
abundance of the same kind in the New Testa- 
ment, can be proved to mean the reverse of the 
apparent meaning. 

According to the newest fashion of- phrenology, 
it is asserted that intellect and emotion, which im- 
ply will, operate through the brain as developed in 
the front of the head ; and that will, associated with 
intellect, emotion, and instinctive propensity, acts 
upon the little brain behind, and part of the spinal 
chord, so as to excite muscular motion and expres- 
sion. These conclusions may perhaps have been 
demonstrated, yet all we can infer from such pre- 
sumed facts is, that the instruments or organs merely 
constitute the media of communication between the 
world without and the world within, the material 
creation and the spiritual. Facts are really best 
explained by supposing a unity of all the senses 
with the brain, and that the spirit, or perceptive 
and willing power, has faculties superadded, which 
are in correspondence with different portions of the 



EVILS OF POPULAR PHRENOLOGY. 63 

brain, and therefore capable of being acted upon 
by it and acting with it. But how do some phre- 
nologists account for the operation of compound 
motives, such as we often feel ? They say it is 
done by a soil of sub-committee of the organs — by 
a board of control. As Abernethy used to say, 
" Pho, pho, if they go to a board of control, I am 
content." They thereby at once declare the neces- 
sity of a presiding and individual intelligence, en- 
dowed with various faculties as the properties of 
one being, subject to pain or pleasure, repugnance 
or desire, according as the objects presented to the 
mind through the senses are adapted, or otherwise, 
to these faculties or endowments, which are all as- 
sociated with the will, hi as far as they are all con- 
nected with a sense of the agreeable or disagreea- 
ble ; and then- very exercise consists in seeking the 
one and avoiding the other. 

Perceiving, thinking, willing. Meditate on these 
things. What are they ? Look upon the brain, 
and think. Now put the idea of a brain and your 
expeiience of thought and feeling together; then 
say whether organization perceives, reflects, deter- 
mines. Is thinking a property of the brain ] Xo : 
the brain possesses all its material properties as 
well when dead as when living, and is as much a 
brain when uninfluenced by thought as when by it 
excited; therefore thinking is not a property of the 
brain : for if the properties of a substance be de- 
stroyed, the substance itself is destroyed. Is the 
brain constituted to secrete thought and feeling, as 
some assert ? "Where is the analogy between it 
and other secerning organs ? Doubtless it may, 



64 EVILS OF POPULAR PHRENOLOGY. 

and most likely does, separate something from 
the blood, perhaps electricity ; and this it may do, 
because electricity is evolved in the circulation. 
All other secerning organs obtain and secrete mat- 
ter chemically like that existing in the blood ; but 
philosophers have not yet invented tests delicate 
enough to detect the elements of thought in the 
blood, where of course they ought to be, if separa- 
ble from it by the brain. But this is a vulgar view 
of materialism. The philosophic materialists are 
more profound and refined. Doubtless with hon- 
est purpose they push on science to its limits ; and 
finding matter everywhere, and spirit nowhere, 
they conclude that their own intellect results from 
atomic affinities, and of course that the mind of the 
universe — God, if He be — springs from eternal 
matter, which of course had no maker. In short, 
matter is their visible almighty, and physical laws, 
are his attributes and perfections. No wonder 
then that they believe in eternal death ; the won- 
der is that they live and feel and thus reason. 

Surely as life is something more than mechan- 
ism, so thought is something above both. No mix- 
ture of substances can produce life, much less mind. 
Every living thing is something more than matter, 
something more distinct from matter than the ele- 
ments are from each other ; and it has been prop- 
agated, imparted, and extended from a preceding 
life, in a manner which matter can not be ; after a 
type existing in egg or seed, at first impregnated 
by the spirit of life, and hence evolving itself in on- 
ward generations, still multiplying while advancing. 
Thus also it is with the mind, which is something 



EVILS OF POPULAR PHRENOLOGY. 65 

more than life ; and every human spirit is like an 
imperishable reflection and visible evidence of Eter- 
nal Being, which first fell upon matter when Jeho- 
vah breathed life into man's body, and saw in man's 
mental and moral existence the everlasting image 
of Himself. 

5 F* 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE NATURE OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM, AND ITS 
OBEDIENCE TO THE WILL. 

The nervous system is, perhaps, merely a gal- 
vanic apparatus, so contrived as that by it the 
chemistry of life is carried on, and those states of 
the organs produced which best enable the mind 
to receive sensation and to act on the body. That 
nerves, under the action of will, are capable of 
eliciting electricity, is proved by its actual pro- 
duction in the torpedo, the electric eel, and other 
creatures that possess an arrangement of nerves 
and muscles by which they can, at will, until fa- 
tigued, accumulate and discharge a succession of 
shocks. Indeed, a spark from the electric eel may 
be made visible and conducted in a circle as from 
an ordinary electrical machine. The creature has 
a perfect galvanic apparatus extending from one 
end of its body to the other, supplied by two hun- 
dred and twenty-four pairs of nerves, which have 
no other office but to energize this apparatus, thus 
affording the most positive proof" that the nervous 
power is essential to its galvanic action. Here 
then we find a living body capable of fulfilling all 
the purposes of a powerful voltaic pile, while its 



NATURE OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 67 

action or its quiescence is determined by another 
still more mysterious agency, namely, the will of 
the animal. And here also we again obtain a con- 
clusive evidence that will is the act of a distinct 
agent, proving its distinctness by its control over a 
separate power. 

" Weinhold, a German, cut off a cat's head, and 
when its arterial pulsation had ceased, took out the 
spinal marrow and placed in its stead an amalgam 
of mercury, silver and zinc : immediately after this 
was done the pulsation recommenced, and the body 
made a variety of movements. He took away the 
brain and spinal marrow of another cat, and filled 
the skull and vertebral canal with the same metal- 
lic mixture. Life appeared to be instantly restored ; 
the animal lifted up its head, opened and shut its 
eyes, and, looking with fixed stare, endeavored to 
walk; and whenever it dropped, tried to raise it- 
self on its legs. It continued in this state twenty 
minutes, when it fell down and remained motion- 
less. During all the time the animal was thus treat- 
ed, the circulation of the blood appeared to go on 
regularly ; the secretion of gastric juice was more 
than usual, and the animal heat was established." 
Lancet, Sept. 2d, 1843. 

If it be true that the cat really tried to walk — and 
there seems no reason to doubt the experiment — it 
proves that the power which wills and feels resides 
not in the brain and spinal chord, for it continued 
capable of acting after these were removed : there- 
fore the brain is not necessary to its existence ; and 
other galvanic media act also as stimuli to the or- 
gans through which volition evinces itself. 



68 NATURE OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM, 

It has long been well known that galvanism, or 
electricity — for they are but modifications of the 
same thing — is capable of exciting motion even in 
the dead body, when transmitted through a muscle 
or a nerve of volition. We see that the will in the 
torpedo and electric eel produces both electricity 
and motion, and we find that a lifeless limb may be 
moved by electricity without the will ; what can be 
a more natural hypothesis therefore than that elec- 
tricity is excited through the nervous mass by the 
operation of the will, so as to produce muscular ac- 
tion ] The exhaustion of the torpedo's power of 
exercising the will, in giving a shock, is an exam- 
ple of what always takes place when the will has 
been long or powerfully exerted. / The nervous ap- 
paratus ceases to supply that electric power which 
stimulates the muscle ; so that it may be used by 
the will, and the creature lies tired and torpid till 
restored by rest. 

Thus we obtain a plausible theory of weariness 
or weakness : the nervous system becomes unfit to 
provide the proper stimulus to the muscular fiber. 
Rest is necessary to accumulate the electricity 
which must be produced from the sanguineous cir- 
culation. This state of exhaustion may be induced 
quite as readily by thinking as by bodily exertion, 
for the nervous system is as much excited by the 
one as by the other. Indeed, that the former, when 
intense, is more injurious to the bodily functions 
than the latter, and is not so easily repaired by rest 
and nourishment, will be shown as we proceed. 

Thinking, with the use of the senses or with an 
effort of the will in maintaining attention, is so far a 



AND ITS OBEDIENCE TO THE WILL. 69 

bodily action or function, and that of the most ex- 
hausting kind, but the more so because not accom- 
panied by a corresponding force of circulation and 
of breathing, as in active employment of the limbs. 
It is remarkable that insane persons, whose course 
of thought, even when most excited, is unattended 
by voluntary mental effort, are not nearly so soon 
exhausted as studious persons, who think consecu- 
tively, and with the attention fixed on their subject 
by the mere force of their will. 

The power of the determination sometimes acts 
beyond the strength of the body. A boxer aims a 
blow at his antagonist, he misses his object, and he 
breaks the bone of his own arm. The cause is 
merely that the mind's action on the muscle was 
more powerful than the bone could bear. This 
energy of mind in the muscles is sometimes wonder- 
fully exhibited by a poor, emaciated madman. The 
strong men can not hold him ; for though his mus- 
cles are mere threads, the violence of his will un- 
der frenzy of the brain endows them with untiring 
action. But the power of the will upon the mus- 
cle is best seen in the fact, that the very fibers that 
during life might have been employed to lift a hun- 
dred weight, may instantly after death be torn by 
the weight of a few ounces. Thus we find that, 
even now, the mind acts by imparting a power su- 
perior to any within the range of mechanics, and 
which absolutely confers strength on the material in 
which it operates, by adding to the attraction of co- 
hesion, and perhaps overcoming gravitation, as elec- 
tricity converts the soft iron into a mighty magnet ; 
yet there is no real similarity between these facts. 



70 NATURE OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM, 

Will energizing atoms has no analogy but in the di- 
rect operation of Deity on the universe, which he 
actuates and inhabits. 

But let us observe what occurs when a man 
moves. Here is no preparation but that of the will ; 
he walks because he wills to walk ; his mind's act 
is immediately obeyed by his body. There is no 
knowledge of the instruments employed, no idea of 
nerves and fibers. The mind is sensibly in every 
limb, and acts whenever it pleases to act, provided 
the mechanism be fit for use. It must be in con- 
tact with the instrument, for it can not act without ; 
it can not act where it is not, therefore the body 
bounds the power of the mind. There is no reason 
why it should not act indefinitely with a suitable 
organization, for even now its energy is limited 
only by the imperfection of the materials it em- 
ploys ; and in the present economy of our bodies 
we possess a type of what we need — an untiring 
machinery. There exists such a distribution of 
nervous power to certain parts, as the heart and the 
muscles by which we perform the act of breathing, 
that they are incapable of being fatigued. 

A structure completely adapted to the energies 
of the unshackled soul must be one that would 
offer no impediment to motion, be incapable of ex- 
haustion, or, like a perpetual lamp, fed with power 
as fast as it is used, be indestructible, invulnerable \ 
in short, a vehicle, like that in the prophet's vision, 
so entirely governed by the resident spirit, as to 
be whithersoever the spirit would, not in subjec- 
tion to earthly attractions and common cohesion, 
but a glorious body, fit to be the everlasting as- 



AND ITS OBEDIENCE TO THE WILL. 71 

sociate of the immortal soul ; such as the inspired 
apostle describes as springing from the grave at 
the word of God, a celestial, a spiritual, an incor- 
ruptible body. Why should we deem this impos- 
sible 1 Do we not now feel that this flesh is no match 
for the mighty spirit? Do we not mourn the 
wretchedness of being forced forks sake to stop short 
in our pursuit of pleasure or of knowledge ] Do 
we not know that this poor trembling tissue is too 
weak to bear the full force of even our narrow will 1 
Shall we wonder then that the faithful and Almighty 
Father should fully accommodate his children, and 
determine, if we rightly seek it, to furnish each one 
with a spiritual and an incorruptible body, that we 
may the better accomplish His will and thus enjoy 
our being. 

It must be acknowledged that the language em- 
ployed in revealing the doctrine of a resurrection 
of the body certainly favors the notions of mate- 
rialists, so far as it implies that the use of a body of 
some kind is essential to the full and perfect capacity 
of human existence ; but still it proves that the 
spirit is not derived from the flesh, and that it is dis- 
tinct from physical arrangement; and so far from 
depending on the body, the body is to be recon- 
structed with new laws and functions, not to pro- 
duce the being — man, but to accommodate him 
suitably in some other sphere of action. 

Some men sneer at the doctrine of a bodily res- 
urrection, and others regard it with undefined 
reverence, while perhaps both are equally far from 
believing all its fullness; that is, they do not view 
the doctrine in all its relations, and with all the sub- 



72 NATURE OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 

lime connections as expressly revealed and demon- 
strated by one crowning fact — the miracle has hap- 
pened. Those who receive the doctrine loosely are 
in danger of losing sight of its grand importance, and, 
having no distinct perception of its necessity, jnst as 
revealed, for the completion of the Christian scheme, 
they may at length confound the speculative fancies 
of their own whimsical minds, and the dreaming 
comments of others, with what God has spoken and 
done, so as to render the whole subject a ridiculous 
incongruity instead of a sublime and consistent 
truth. The mixture of falsehood with fact calm 
reason must reject ; and the reasoner too often does 
not discover that what he has rejected is but a de- 
formity, and not the doctrine of the New Testament. 
Thus the key-stone of the bridge over the vast dark 
gulf between time and eternity is gone, and he 
finds no footing when his spirit would travel off 
this earth. But let the man who, in any manner, 
discredits the resurrection, turn away from meta- 
physical questions and look at Christ — living, dead, 
buried, risen ! Or if he have tenderly loved one 
departed in the living faith of a risen Lord, let him 
again realize the presence and fellowship of the 
beloved object in the promise and the prophecy of 
deathless love and eternal happiness. Then let the 
bright vision again fade away in death and gloom, 
without a star-gleam on the lonely grave ; and when 
-his spirit seems in outer darkness, let the mourner 
read the 15th chapter of the 1st of Corinthians, and 
then call the doctrine of the resurrection a trick and 
a delusion If he can, But we must return from this 
divergence^ 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE POWER OF ATTENTION, AND ITS CONNECTION 
WITH SLEEP. 

Let us again reflect a little on the power of at- 
tention. Is this a property of the body ] Can the 
body produce a faculty capable of regarding its 
own wants and influencing its own sensations ] / If 
you cease to attend to the senses, you cease to be 
conscious of external existence ; your body neces- 
sarily falls asleep, or you pass into a state of r ev- 
ery. The body is not then needed for any of the 
voluntary acts of the mind. Jit is not then wanted 
by the w T ill ; and therefore until some interference 
with the repose of the body happens, or some pow- 
er agitates its resident spirit, and thus demands the 
use of the organization subservient to the will, you 
continue without attention to external objects. We 
have no proof, however, that the soul also slum- 
bers ; but we have reason rather to conclude that 
it attends to the past when not engaged with things 
present. At least w r e know we often dream, and to 
dream is the business of the mind when combining 
past impressions, without regard to the actual state 
of the body. When we aw r ake we generally for- 
get our dreams, because the soul again wills and 
G 



74 THE POWER OP ATTENTION, AND 

acts in keeping with circumstances around us ; and 
the machinery of the body, if in health, again obeys 
the mandates of the mind. There is something 
operating which is so unlike all its influences, that 
it can neither be seen nor handled, nor at all per- 
ceived, but in its action upon matter. 

When not using the body, that is, when not 
employing material substances, the mind acknowl- 
edges neither time nor space, for it is not governed 
by physical laws. Hence it is that, if no haunting 
anxiety perplex the mind and no disorder disturb 
the organism of the associate body, as often and as 
regularly as the curtain of nightly shade falls around 
us, and we desire to withdraw our attention, the 
senses sleep ; and, at the touch of light, the con- 
senting spirit within again awakes them to the 
wonders of a daily resurrection. During the inter- 
val between the evening and morning, what intri- 
cate visions of activity and interest, all according to 
some important law of our being, crowd upon the 
busy soul, not indeed in the distinctness of a meas- 
ured and material succession, but as if at once past 
and yet present. There is no consciousness of time 
in our dreams ; for a sense of time arises from a 
comparison of the relative duration of material 
changes, and therefore belongs only to the outward 
use of the mind. In the imaginings or fanciful but 
instructive blendings of past ideas in our profounder 
slumbers, we are but in the spirit, without the per- 
ception of circumstances ; and the action of the 
soul, like itself, has no dependence on minutes and 
hours ; for it knows no division, no dimensions, and 
is comprehended only by the mind of Him who 



ITS CONNECTION WITH SLEEP. 75 

produced it. But even in sleep the spirit usually 
preserves a kind of discriminating vigilance with 
regard to the sense of hearing at least, so as to 
distinguish the meaning of sounds. Thus the 
mother whose mind is naturally engrossed by the 
infant that depends on her for every help, will sleep 
profoundly amid the incessant din and rattle of a 
London thoroughfare, or of carriages and the rout, 
it may be next door, but the smallest sound from 
her baby will instantly awaken her. 

This perception during sleep, however, must be 
greatly modified by the previous habit and by the 
state of mind at the time. One unaccustomed to 
the rushing and roaring of a steam-vessel at sea 
would scarcely be able to sleep, but the captain 
would probably start up in a moment if the engine 
were to stop. 

The action of the mind on the circulation, and 
the development of nervous energy in the use of 
the senses and muscles, while we are awake, is of 
so positive and exhausting a nature, as regards the 
powers of the body, that a continuance of sleep- 
lessness must terminate in death. There is reason 
to believe that growth or addition to the body never 
takes place while the senses are engaged, in conse- 
quence of the demand made by the mind in main- 
taining their action. What we understand by fa- 
tigue is the felt unfitness of the body any longer 
to subserve the outward purposes of the mind. If 
we do not yield to the sense of weariness, but 
struggle against it by strong effort ; or if, in conse- 
quence of some interesting subject engrossing the 
affections and powerfully exciting the will, we find 



76 THE POWER OF ATTENTION, AND 

that we can not sleep, the body rapidly becomes 
diseased, and the manifestations of the mind assume 
an irregular and disordered character. In short, 
long-continued vigilance is a frequent cause of insan- 
ity as well as of other bodily maladies. It is re- 
markable, however, that when mental derangement 
is established from this cause, the patient often re- 
gains a considerable degree of bodily vigor, al- 
though he enjoy an extremely small degree of per- 
fect sleep. This fact is probably explained by the 
circumstance that an insane person does not use his 
senses in the same attentive manner as a sane indi- 
vidual, but he behaves as if acting in a dream. The 
brain in such cases is but partially awake, or at 
least is in such a state that the mind can not so 
act upon it as to keep it in the condition necessary 
for orderly and vigilant thinking ; and therefore it 
can not be exhausted as we experience it to be by 
mental effort. The madman's thoughts, like dreams, 
are fashioned into fantastic and mysterious visions, 
in keeping indeed with his past history and re- 
membrance ; the ideas are impressed upon his liv- 
ing soul, but irrespective of any resolute demand 
of his will, though never, as I believe, without rela- 
tion to his moral characteristics. 

Sleep results from a constitutional bodily neces- 
sity ; the attention of the mind must be withdrawn 
from the body, or the machinery of nerves and 
blood-vessels can not be properly repaired and fit- 
ted for further action. The body requires rest, 
the mind does not ; and the body needs it only 
because the structure of its parts will not bear 
the incessant operation of the mind upon it. Un- 



ITS CONNECTION WITH SLEEP 77 

less the structure be rendered quite unfit for the 
use of the mind, it is always roused into action 
whenever an appeal is made to the soul by any 
influence. In short, it is manifest that the thinking 
and acting principle does not sleep at all, in the 
sense in which the body sleeps, when the mind is 
not using it; for the mind is always ready for 
action whenever the organization is in a fit state 
to convey impression and to be employed. As 
surely as physical phenomena excite sensation 
during sleep, as in some dreams, so surely do 
they prove, that during sleep there is no absolute 
suspension of the faculty of perception. That we 
awake at the bidding of a bodily necessity, as also 
we fall asleep, is an evidence that the mind only 
partially retires from the senses till outward oc- 
casion demands the physical operation of the will. 
It is simply ridiculous to say, as some do, that 
the brain is actively employed in taking up recol- 
lected impressions of the thousand associations of 
past thought and feeling, in dreaming and insanity, 
and yet to deny that the brain produces mind; 
for if the mind does not recollect these past 
associations, the brain must ; but as manifested 
mind (so called) consists of these \ery thoughts 
and feelings, mind itself, as a distinct thing, has 
no existence, if their production and reproduction 
be only a function of the brain. The cessation 
of the brain is then the cessation of the thinking 
principle, — they are one. Is it not more reason- 
able to consider dreaming and insanity as mind or 
soul in action, without any distinctness of exterior 
purpose or aim, such as we feel while acting in our 
a* 



78 THE POWER OP ATTENTION, AND 

social relations, and in consciousness of responsi- 
bility, because we then recognize the propriety 
of those laws by which our actions should be 
governed in relation to others, and for our own 
sakes ] 

Ideas are remembered impressions, and dreams 
are confused ideas : if, then, ideas are mental, 
dreams are mental. There are laws under which 
the soul acts in dreaming, as well as in thinking, 
and it is often difficult to distinguish these acts. 
Neither the danger nor the absurdity of consider- 
ing dreaming as a mental act is very apparent, not- 
withstanding this opinion has been regarded with a 
sort of pious dread by some writers, who attribute 
dreaming to the spontaneous action of an irritated 
brain ; as if they escaped from the dilemma of ma- 
terialism by representing waking ideas as the re- 
sult of a spiritual intelligence, and those arising 
during sleep as the sole offspring of a writhing bun- 
dle of fibers. Such timid reasoning, after all its 
agony, only pictures the mind as more completely 
an accident of matter, unless such language be 
meant merely to signify that ideas in sleep are not 
directed by the same degree or kind of mental 
determination as during the periods of vigilance 
and watchfulness. This, however, no one denies ; 
and it is perfectly consistent with the notion, that 
the being that thinks is stimulated by impressions 
derived through the nervous system, — it is actuated 
by motive, by the agreeable or disagreeable ; but 
then the nervous system, which only communicates 
the causes of sensations, not the sensations them- 
selves, can not originate the thinking being itself, 



ITS CONNECTION WITH SLEEP. 79 

nor confer any of its properties. It is the property 
of this being to be roused into ordinary activity by 
impressions on the nerves ; and all the phenomena 
of dreams and disorder of the brain are precisely 
such as we should look for under such an arrange- 
ment, when we reflect that the attention is more 
or less withdrawn from the senses in these cases, 
as we shall discover by reference to facts. 

Experiment demonstrates that the power of 
attending to the senses may be influenced by the 
occupation of the mind, or by the state of the 
organization, and of course our common con- 
sciousness or unconsciousness, when we are not 
asleep, is only the condition of the soul in regard 
to the senses, that is, to external attention. In 
dreaming, there is always consciousness at the 
time of the ideas passing, and yet on waking we 
do not always, nor indeed generally, remember 
that we have dreamed ; so that in fact we are con- 
scious in one state, without being aware of it in 
another. This fact is abundantly proved, as we 
shall see, and it furnishes demonstration that the 
mind may be active during what we call a state 
of insensibility, and may require only some slight 
change in the connection of the faculty or power 
of soul by which we remember, to enable us to 
recall with distinctness the condition and employ- 
ment of mind during such a state of apparent 
suspense ; just as we recognize in waking memo- 
ry the various experiences of our wakeful life. 
Some link in the chain is wanting to complete 
the circle, which, being completed, one end is 
connected with the other ; the current of thought 



80 THE POWER OF ATTENTION, ETC. 

returns, and we become conscious of its unbroken 
action. There is no possibility of understanding 
this subject, without bearing in mind our double 
consciousness, that with the senses and that with- 
out their use. But it is fruitless to attempt reason- 
ing without facts ; these supersede all other argu- 
ments, and to facts, therefore, we shall always 
appeal. Yet we should not disregard the sug- 
gestion that the mind may possess a power, here- 
after to be developed, by which it shall be enabled 
to connect all its ideas and dreams together, and 
perceive the mutual relation of its two states of 
consciousness. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE STATE OF THE WILL IN DREAMING. 

Thinking is that action of the mind by which we 
become conscious of existence, either in the re- 
membrance of the past, the perception of the pres- 
ent, or the expectation of the future. Thought, as 
it regards our observation of facts, is always volun- 
tary. An act of the will precedes or accompanies 
attention, whether to sensible or ideal objects. As 
our experience is actual, we of course at once asso- 
ciate sensation with an object ; hence imagination, 
or the action of mind abstract from sense, supplies 
an appropriate succession of ideas, by the law of 
association. The faculty of conceiving unreal cir- 
cumstances, or things not present, although ordina- 
rily unattended by volition in the restricted sense, 
yet never proceeds altogether without the operation 
of the will ; for mental abstraction commences and 
is maintained by a determinate effort. In this case, 
however, we preserve a certain control over the 
body. But in dreams, or in revery of the most 
profound kind, the mind seems more detached from 
the physical organization. Still even then we at- 
tend to the ideas presented, and, to a great extent, 
reason and decide concerning them according to 



82 STATE OF THE WILL IN DREAMING. 

the moral principles which habitually regulate our 
conduct ; so that in fact our dreams would well re- 
veal to us the state of our hearts and our habits, for 
in them our wills are freer from restraint, and our 
desires are more undisguised by the hypocrisies of 
waking life. As Sir Thomas Browne says, in his 
tract on dreams, " Persons of radical integrity will 
not easily be perverted in their dreams, nor noble 
minds do pitiful things in sleep." " Though bound- 
ed in a nut-shell, I might fancy myself a king of 
infinite space, but that I have had dreams," exclaims 
Hamlet. These visions of the night indeed instruct 
us concerning our characters ; and though they are 
produced involuntarily, yet they test the conscience 
and prove the state of our dispositions. The facts 
about to be related will fully confirm the truth of 
this observation, and assist to sustain the opinion 
that all thinking is influenced by the previous habit 
and training of the will. 

That volition is not suspended during sleep, is 
proved by many facts ; and probably the experi- 
ence of every person who remembers his dreams 
affords evidence that the will is as busy during 
sleep as when awake. But the fact is strikingly 
illustrated by examples of remarkable exertion of 
will, in the employment of intellect and genius du- 
ring sleep. Tartini, a celebrated violin player, 
composed his famous Devil's Sonata while he 
dreamed that the devil challenged him to a trial of 
skill on his own violin. Cabanis often, during his 
dreams, saw clearly into the bearing of political 
events which baffled him when awake. Condorcet 
frequently left his deep and complicated calcula- 



STATE OF THE WILL IN DREAMING. 83 

tions unfinished when obliged to retire to rest, and 
found their results unfolded in his dreams. Cole- 
ridge's account of his wild composition, Kuhla 
Khan, is very curious. He had been reading Pur- 
chases Pilgrimage, and fell asleep at the moment 
he was reading this sentence — " Here the Khan 
Kubla commanded a palace to be built, and a 
stately garden thereunto/' He continued in pro- 
found sleep about three hours, during which he had 
a vivid confidence that he composed from two to 
three hundred lines; if, as he says, that can be 
called composition in which all the images rose up 
before him as things with a parallel production of 
correspondent expressions. On awakening he ap- 
peared to have a distinct recollection of the whole, 
and proceeded to write down the wonderful lines 
that are preserved, when he was interrupted, and 
could never afterward recall the rest. 

We might multiply examples ; but all we could 
adduce would demonstrate no more than the fore- 
going, though they might afford additional presump- 
tion that the mind is generally employed during 
sleep, on its chosen or accustomed subjects, and 
that dreams indicate our spiritual condition, be- 
cause in them those faculties and feelings are most 
active which we most energetically exercise while 
awake. 

In short, it appears that the contact of any dis- 
turbing power with the mind, whether awake or 
asleep, necessarily causes it to act and will accord- 
ing to its habit and character. Every new sensa- 
tion is unaccountably connected with some preceding 
sensation, so that volition and memory are the 



84 STATE OF THE WILL IN DREAMING. 

necessary characteristics of manifested mind. No 
subtilty of reasoning has been able to account for 
these powers or peculiarities of mind on a material 
theory. Phrenologists and metaphysicians, with 
all their grand and cloudy pretensions, have added 
nothing important to our knowledge concerning 
them. All their elaborate disquisitions exhibiting 
the operation of mental function in unison with or- 
ganization, teach us no more than we previously 
knew, namely, that the functions of the mind and 
brain are created to act together at present. They 
leave us in possession of the capital and most inter- 
esting fact, that we do will and ice do remember, 
but they can not tell us how. Still they must 
acknowledge that these wonderful powers result 
from the operation of some thing or being, which 
chooses between pleasant and unpleasant sensations, 
both when the body sleeps and when it wakes ; and 
which some thing or being also recalls past im- 
pressions according to certain laws of association 
and certain states of mind and body. That is, our 
Maker has bound our faculties to act in a certain 
order, under certain circumstances ; in short, that 
He holds dominion over mind as well as matter, 
for purposes hereafter to be revealed. 



CHAPTER X. 

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE POWER OF THE MIND IN 
DREAMING, SOMNAMBULISM, ETC. 

The importance of reflecting on volition and 
memory will be best demonstrated by facts, and an 
acquaintance with these principles will most fully 
manifest the nature of our existence, as constituted 
to be modified and actuated by moral forces. The 
senses are impressed whenever their objects are 
present, but the mind itself receives no impression 
unless disposed to attend. Thus we find that 
when the mind is fully intent upon one class of 
objects or ideas, it wholly disregards all others; 
as when the absent man forgets the presence of 
his friends, or the imaginative man revels in his 
ideal world to the detriment of his well-being in 
this lower and more palpable existence. Many 
curious instances of this want of attention to the 
senses may be related, the most remarkable of 
which very nearly approximate to insanity, which 
probably in most cases is properly described as 
being out of the senses. Those images and inti- 
mations which the senses continue correctly to 
exhibit, are disregarded or perverted by the mind 
while it is busied about sensations or impressions 
H 



86 THE POWER OF THE MIND IN 

produced or excited by some disordered action of 
the brain ; which, being the organ on which the 
thinking power immediately acts, and through 
which it directly receives all its intelligence con- 
cerning the external world, of course must con- 
stantly modify the manifestation of mind according 
to the healthiness of its structure and function. 
Somnambulism, or sleep-walking, affords good ex- 
amples of mental activity without attention to the 
impression made on the senses. Somnambulists 
generally walk with their eyes open, but it is 
evident that they do not employ them. A man 
has been known to fall asleep while walking, at the 
end of a fatiguing journey, and he could not be 
roused from his sleep without great difficulty, al- 
though he continued to walk in company with his 
friends for a considerable distance. It is indeed 
a well- authenticated fact, that in the disastrous 
retreat of Sir John Moore, many of the soldiers 
fell asleep, yet continued to march along with 
their comrades. 

In connection with this subject we have an illus- 
tration of the genius of Shakspeare. He was so 
observant of nature, and so well distinguished the 
apparent from the actual, that his descriptions even 
of disease are so marvelously truthful that the 
teacher of pathology may often quote them as the 
best guides to his pupils. He gives a lucid glimpse 
at the phenomena of somnambulism and sleep- 
talking, when he describes Lady Macbeth in "the 
unnatural troubles of her unnatural deeds, dis- 
charging the secrets of her infected mind to her 
deaf pillow/ ' He represents the abrupt and sug- 



DREAMING AND SOMNAMBULISM. 87 

gestive vision of circumstances, in which the soul 
reenacts her terrible part, precisely as those often 
witness who are attendant on talking dreamers and 
insane persons. The only evident difference be- 
tween these classes is, that the latter seem to dream 
on when quite awake, and force their senses to 
confirm their fancies. 

" I have seen her rise from her bed," says the 
gentlewoman, " throw her night-gown upon her, 
unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write 
upon it, read it, afterward seal it, and again return 
to bed ; yet all this while fast asleep." 

" Doct. — You see her eyes are open. 
Gent. — But their sense is shut." . 

In these cases we observe that the mind controls 
the actions of the voluntary muscles, and continues 
attending to visible objects, without employing the 
sense of sight, and apparently receives impressions 
of sound, while the auditory nervous apparatus is 
quite insensible. It may be true that certain por- 
tions of brain sleep while other portions remain 
awake ; but what does that signify ] Can one part 
of the brain subserve the purposes of the other 
parts, and those organs which phrenologists appro- 
priate to thought, furnish a substitute in their own 
action for that of the instruments of vision and of 
hearing % If so, their system must be false ; for 
faculty is not limited according to their cranial 
maps, the provinces of which are boldly defined by 
very imaginary lines indeed. But what is the dif- 
ference in the state of the brain during sleeping 
and waking ] Happily we are supplied with facts 
which in some measure answer this question, and 



88 THE POWER OF THE MIND IN 

prove to our satisfaction that both brain and mind 
act altogether, and not by bits. 

Sir Astley Cooper had a patient, whose skull 
being imperfect, allowed him to examine the move- 
ments of the brain. Sir Astley says, " I distinctly 
saw the pulsation of the brain was regular and 
slow, but at this time he was agitated by some op- 
position to his wishes ; and directly the blood was 
sent with increased force to the brain, the pulsation 
became frequent and violent." Dr. Pierquin wit- 
nessed the following case in the hospital of Mont- 
pellier, in 1821. Dr. Caldwell states that " the 
subject of it was a female, who had lost a large 
portion of the skull and dura mater in a neglected 
attack of lues venerea. When she was in a dream- 
less sleep her brain was motionless ; when her sleep 
was imperfect and she was agitated by dreams, her 
brain protruded from the cranium ; in vivid dreams, 
reported as such by her self , the protrusion was con- 
siderable ; and when perfectly awake, especially 
if engaged in active thought or sprightly conversa- 
tion, it was greater still." We may observe that, 
in dreams reported by herself to be vivid, the brain 
protruded. These dreams must then have occurred 
during the transition from sleep to waking, for we 
shall learn from numerous other facts that the most 
perfect dreams are those which are not remember- 
ed. Here, moreover, we have a demonstration 
that the brain is roused by the mind; for mind 
must first have responded to the call, whatever the 
medium of the sensation which caused the patient 
to awake. We also see that the brain, during ac- 
tive thought, must have been injected with addi- 



DREAMING AND SOMNAMBULISM. 89 

tional blood in every part of it, for doubtless it 
would have become enlarged in all directions at 
once, had the skull allowed. This must always be 
the tendency whenever the supply of blood is in- 
creased in the brain, if we understand any thing 
of its mechanism and circulation; for branches 
spread to every part from the larger blood-vessels ; 
and as there are no valves, the supply must flow to 
all, as water flows through every open pipe con- 
nected with the main. But perhaps some ques- 
tioner would suggest that the mind possesses power 
to control the supply, and cause it to pass with 
more or less freedom in certain parts of the brain, 
according to circumstances. This indeed may 
readily be granted ; for it substantiates what is con- 
tended for, namely, that the mind acts independ- 
ently and as a whole, not as a loose bundle of sep- 
arate faculties, each self-moved ; and that mind acts 
according to its will, that is, its nature, taking this 
or that direction, as it is impressed. 

Yet we have no proof that brain thus responds 
in parcels to the impress of the mind, and even if 
we had, it would no more prove that mind results 
from the action of the brain than from the use of 
our limbs, through which also the mind is manifest- 
ed by calling them into action. At any rate, the 
oneness of the mind, and therefore its independence 
on successive conditions of brain and faculty, must 
be acknowledged; for surely it is the same mind 
which experiences all the successions of sensation 
and of thought. How then does this fact agree 
with the assumption that the healthy brain may be 
active in one part and dormant in another % The 



90 THE POWER OF THE MIND IN 

state and power of attention alone explain the mys- 
tery. We find that mental activity, when directed 
to the body, causes an instantaneous increase in the 
supply of blood to the brain, which of course we 
should expect, because the blood furnishes the ma- 
terial, whether electrical or not, which excites the 
whole bodily apparatus into action when the will 
demands it. This fact, however, brings us very 
little nearer to the unravelment of the tangled clew 
that must guide vis from the mazes of science and 
surmise. 

It is evident that the integrity of mental action is 
not dependent on the waking activity of the brain, 
or at least of that portion of it which is more imme- 
diately connected with the senses ; for, notwith- 
standing the last-mentioned facts, we possess incon- 
trovertible evidence in preceding facts that the mind 
is sometimes employed more clearly in profound 
sleep than when the attention is in any degree di- 
rected to the senses. Dr. Abercrombie relates that 
an eminent lawyer had been consulted respecting 
a case of great difficulty and importance, and after 
several days of intense attention to the subject, he 
got up in his sleep and wrote a long paper., The 
following morning he told his wife that he had had 
a most interesting dream, and that he would give 
any thing to recover the train of thought which had 
then passed through his mind. She directed him 
to his writing desk, where he found his opinion 
clearly and luminously written out. 

It is contrary to all the physiology of the case to 
conclude, as some most hastily have done, that it is 
but a lighter kind of sleep which is associated with 



DREAMING AND SOMNAMBULISM. 91 

somnambulism ; for this condition results from nerv- 
ous exhaustion, and is apt, like delirium, to occur in 
the most marked manner in persons in whom the 
quantity of blood is deficient. The difficulty of 
arousing such patients is always in proportion to the 
completeness of the attack ; that is, in proportion to 
the energy with which the will is at work without 
attending to the body, — a sufficient proof that the 
sleep, whether partial or perfect, is yet profound. 
This kind of sleep never seems to happen but when 
the nervous system demands unusual repose, being 
greatly worn by some bodily irritation or mental 
disquietude. The abuse of the passions most fre- 
quently predisposes to its worst forms. That the 
mind should act thus vigorously when the body is 
exhausted, and be most energetic when the heart 
beats low and the cheek is blanched, is at best but 
indifferent attestation to the truth of the theory that 
requires mind to be merely the effect of blood act- 
ing upon brain, or a kind of compound engendered 
by their mixture, which wall be most strongly man- 
ifested when the mixture is most active, like the 
electric fluid from the acid and the metals in the 
galvanic trough. 

Dr. Darwin (Zoonomia, p. 221), relates a case 
which he witnessed, of a young lady who, after 
being exhausted by violent convulsions, was sud- 
denly affected by what he calls revery. She con- 
versed aloud with imaginary persons, her eyes 
were open, but so intently was her mind occupied 
that she could not be brought to attend to external 
objects by the most violent stimulants. The con- 
versations were quite consistent. Sometimes she 



92 THE POWER OF THE MIND IN 

was angry, at other times very witty, but most fre- 
quently inclined to melancholy. Indeed, it appears 
that this re very only exalted her natural versatility 
of temper and intellect. She sang with accuracy, 
and repeated many pages from the poets. In re- 
peating some lines from Pope, she forgot a word, 
and after repeated trials regained it. In subse- 
quent attacks she could walk about the room, and, 
although she could not see, she never ran against 
the furniture, but always avoided obstacles. Dr. 
Darwin convinced himself that in this state she was 
not capable of seeing or hearing in the ordinary man- 
ner. It is observable in this case that volition was 
not suspended ; she regained, by effort, the lost word 
in repeating the poetry, and deliberated according 
to the natural habit of her mind; yet, when the 
paroxysm was over, she could not recollect a single 
idea of what had passed in it. 

The relation between dreaming and somnambu- 
lism is remarkably exhibited by the manner in which 
the current of dreams may be directed in certain 
individuals, by impressing their senses during sleep. 
An officer, engaged in the expedition to Louisburg, 
in 1758, was so peculiarly susceptible of such im- 
pressions that he afforded his companions much 
amusement by the facility with which they could 
cause him to dream. Once they conducted him 
through a quarrel which ended in a duel : the pis- 
tol was placed in his hand, he fired, and was awak- 
ened by the report. They found him asleep on a 
locker, when they made him believe he had fallen 
overboard. They told him a shark was pursuing 
him, and entreated him to dive for his life, and he 



DREAMING AND SOMNAMBULISM. 93 

threw himself with great force on the cabin floor. 
After the landing of the army at Louis burg, his 
friends found him one day asleep in his tent, and 
evidently much annoyed by the cannonading. They 
then made him believe he was engaged, when he 
expressed great fear and a disposition to run away. 
They remonstrated, but increased his fears by imi- 
tating groans, and when he asked who was hit, they 
named his particular friends. At last they told him 
the man next him had fallen, when he sprung out 
of bed, rushed out of the tent, and ended his dream 
by falling over the tent ropes. He had no recollec- 
tion of his dreams. 

The following instance is related in the first vol- 
ume of the Lancet. George Davies, sixteen years 
old, in the sendee of Mr. Hewson, butcher, of 
Bridge-road, Lambeth, being fatigued, bent for- 
ward in his chair, and, resting his forehead on his 
hands, fell asleep. After ten minutes he started up, 
went for his whip, put on his spurs, and went to the 
stable. Not finding his own saddle in the proper 
place, he returned to the house and asked for it. 
Being asked what he wanted with it, he replied, to 
go his rounds. He returned to the stable, got on 
the horse without the saddle, and was proceeding 
to the street, when, with much difficulty and force, 
he was removed from his horse. He thought him- 
self stopped at the turnpike gate, took sixpence out 
of his pocket to be changed, and holding out his 
hand for the change, the sixpence was returned to 
him. He immediately observed, " None of your 
nonsense j that is the sixpence again — give me my 
change." When 2±d. was given to him, he counted 



94 THE POWER OF THE MIND IN 

it over, and said, " None of your gammon- — that is 
not right — I want a penny more ;" making the 
3id., which was his proper change. He then said, 
" Give me my castor" (meaning his hat), which 
slang term he had been in the habit of using, and 
then began to whip and spur to get his horse on. 
Mr. Hewson related the circumstance, in his hear- 
ing, of a Mr. Harris, optician, in Holborn, whose 
son, some years since, walked out on the parapet 
of the house in his sleep. The boy joined the con- 
versation, and observed that he lived at the cornei 
of Brownlow-street. After being bled, he awoke, 
got up, and asked what was the matter (having 
then been one hour in the trance), not having the 
slightest recollection of any thing that had pass- 
ed. His eyes remained closed the whole of the 
time. 

According to a report made by the Committee 
of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, that 
process which is called animal magnetism appears 
to have the power of producing a remarkable kind 
of somnambulism. The facts about to be related 
seem too startling to be easily credited; but the 
testimony of such men as Cloquet, Georget, and 
Itard, is not to be lightly esteemed; and they all 
concur in bearing witness to the truth of the case. 
— A lady, 64 years of age, had a cancer in her 
breast. She was magnetized, as it is called, for 
the purpose of dissolving the tumor, but the only 
effect was to throw her into a state in which exter- 
nal sensibility was removed, while her ideas and 
power of conversing retained all their clearness. 
In this condition her surgeon induced her to submit 



DREAMLNG AND SOMNAMBULISM. 95 

to an operation. Having given her consent, she 
sat down upon a chair, and the diseased part was 
deliberately dissected out, while she continued con- 
versing about the different stages of the operation 
being perfectly insensible of pain. On awakening, 
she had no consciousness whatever of having been 
operated upon. She was a lady of great respect- 
ability, and resided at No. 151, Hue St. Denis, 
Paris. 

This case is not quoted either for or against 
mesmerism. The operation having been really per- 
formed, and the patient having appeared indifferent 
to pain, it equally well answers the purpose of il- 
lustration ; for if truly the effect of mesmerism, it 
proves the power of causing a wonderful sort of 
abstraction, during which the mind may perceive 
what goes on in the organs, and employ them too, 
without sensation in them. And if this case be 
an imposition in that respect, it yet proves the 
araster y of the /will in maintaining the attention ac- 
cording to purpose in almost as marvelous a man- 
ner. An anonymous opposer of mesmerism lately 
announced, in a periodical, that the lady had con- 
fessed her imposition ; but, on subsequent inquiry 
of the celebrated surgeon who operated, and of 
others who intimately knew her, they positively 
denied that there was any deception, or that she 
had ever confessed any thing to that effect. When 
Dr. Caldwell, of America, asked M. Cloquet, who 
operated in this case, if he had ever seen a patient 
in the ordinary state who bore pain as unmoved, he 
answered, " Jamais ! jamais ! jamais /" He also 
said he was quite sure that she never made the confcs- 



96 THE POWER OF THE MIND, ETC. 

sion alluded to. This subject will again claim our 
attention, when more fully and particularly consid- 
ering the morbid influences of the mind on the 
body. 



CHAPTER XL 

THE STATE OF THE ATTENTION MODIFIES SENSATION. 

We have reason to believe that whenever disor- 
dered action of the mind occurs, a corresponding 
disorder takes place in the nervous organization ; 
but it always manifests itself at first, and indeed 
more or less throughout its course, by new and ir- 
regular whimsicalities of will, the attention being 
withdrawn from ordinary objects, and the mind 
impressed by some false conviction or unreasonable 
desire. In short, insanity appears to be a disease 
in which the mind is rendered incapable of due at- 
tention, either to ideas existing in the memory or 
to new impressions on the senses, in consequence 
of being possessed by some false notion, to such an 
extent, that it can not view any subject or idea, 
bearing any relation to that notion, except in such 
a manner as shall confirm the false impression. 
Whatever is presented to the mind in association 
with that false impression, at once causes the mind, 
according to a common law of its operation, to 
attend to the prominent notion, which thus assumes 
the character of an indisputable truth — an axiom 
— a faith, to which every thing must conform. 
The following anecdote will illustrate' the power 
7 I 



98 ATTENTION MODIFIES SENSATION. 

of this kind of false belief, and at the same time 
demonstrate that mental persuasion is superior to 
the impressions of bodily necessity. A man will 
starve to death rather than renounce what he re- 
gards as truth. 

A clergyman, about forty years of age, while 
drinking wine, happened to swallow with it the seal 
of a letter which he had just received. One of his 
companions seeing him alarmed, for the sake of a 
foolish jest, cried out, " It will seal up your bowels."- 
These words taking effect upon his brain while 
excited by a fright, caused the gentleman to be- 
come suddenly insane. From that moment he was 
the victim of melancholy, and in a few days he re- 
fused to swallow any kind of nourishment, alledging 
as a reason that " he knew nothing would pass 
through him." The plentiful operation of a power- 
ful cathartic, which his physician forced him to take, 
failed to convince him of the patency of his bowels. 
Coaxing and threats were equally unavailing ; his 
mind would not consent that any thing should pass 
down into his stomach, and he died of a mad idea. 

All prejudice which disqualifies an individual 
from comparing evidence is, so far, disorder of 
intellect. The will is thus engaged, and can not 
attend to new claimants, so as to determine justly 
concerning them. In madness, the prejudice and 
perversion are more decided, and, for the most 
part, more honest than those which cause divisions 
among responsible men. Like children looking 
through different colored glasses at the sun, each 
believes that his own fragment presents the only 
proper hue. 



ATTENTION MODIFIES SENSATION. 99 

In mental derangement, the deficiency, as re- 
spects the power of attending to sensation, may 
be very partial, and even limited to one subject. 
As regards that subject, the faculty of discrimina- 
tion is lost. Any attempt to compare only re- 
produces the same image. Thus a man may 
believe, as the celebrated Simon Browne did, that 
he has lost his rational soul, while, at the same 
time, exerting the highest order of intellect. This 
person, in dedicating a controversial work to Queen 
Anne, says of himself, " he was once a man of some 
little name, but of no worth, as his present un- 
paralleled case makes too manifest ; for, by the 
immediate hand of God, his very thinking sub- 
stance has been wasting away for seventeen years, 
till it is wholly perished." So completely does the 
dominant idea sometimes possess the attention, that 
certain deranged persons become almost insensible 
to external impressions, and are able, if they will, 
like that pseudo-saint, Macarius, to stand in a state 
of nudity for months together, in a marsh, exposed 
to the bit.e of every noxious insect. 

The soul seems conscious only of those things 
that suit the state of its will. We see, whenever 
we have means of detecting it, that the will is 
always engaged about its business ; for, as far as 
we can observe the mind's operations, it is ever 
comparing, choosing, or pursuing. "We sleep, and 
lose sight of realities ; we awake, and lose sight 
of dreams, only because our attention is fixed on 
what is present to the mind's consciousness of 
things external or within itself; but still, sleeping 
or waking, the thinking principle is equally intent, 



100 ATTENTION MODIFIES SENSATION, 

and equally engaged. Circumstances change not 
its nature, but only modify its operation. Even 
apparent unconsciousness is no proof of its sus- 
pension. Let the same circumstances return, and 
the mind manifests itself in the same manner, for 
neither physical elements nor spiritual dynamics 
can alter the affinities of the soul, or liberate it 
from the necessity of choice and action, according 
to the constitution in which it was created, Th^ 
freedom of its will is limited to its sphere, and any 
contrariety in its movements to Divine Law brings 
it in contact with some obstacle, so that persist- 
ence in erroneous desire leads only to increased 
suffering ; and as a creature is rendered incapable 
of its natural delight when in darkness, so every 
rational soul finds its proper liberty only in return- 
ing to the true light, which is true love. 

Those forms of insanity, sleep-walking and sleep- 
talking, which so frequently present themselves, 
prove, as before observed, that mental activity is 
not proportioned to the wakefulness of the senses, 
nor indeed necessarily associated with sensation, 
but rather the reverse ; at least it appears that the 
mind in such cases is occupied not so much in 
attending to external things as to fancies ; or if in 
any degree to realities, only so far as to mix them 
with imagined or remembered circumstances. This 
is perfectly consonant with all we know of the mind ; 
for though ideas are first excited by some peculiar 
condition of the organization, in keeping with cer- 
tain states of mental faculty, yet the ideas or images 
of things afterward continue to play their parts in 
the dramas of the soul, without its recurring to the 



ATTENTION MODIFIES SENSATION. 101 

help of renewed sensation. The senses then are 
no part of our consciousness, or of ourselves, for 
individuality does not consist of parts ; it is the 
one and indivisible being, the ego ipse, which per- 
ceives and wills. 

The senses convey the exciting causes of new 
thoughts to our minds, but the elements of the 
thoughts themselves always reside in the mind, 
which forms the thought ; for there is no neces- 
sary connection between the sensation and the 
idea awakened by it, but in the nature and prop- 
erty of the thinking principle itself. It is this 
which gives appropriate forms to appropriate im- 
pressions, or interprets sensations in keeping with 
some preexisting ordinance of the soul. "We 
see, we feel, we hear, according to a power apart 
from sense, or not necessarily associated with it, 
and according to a nature that may see, hear, feel, 
in a different manner with different instruments, or 
even immediately, that is, without instruments, and 
rather according to the state of the will than the 
state of the body. 

Here an observation concerning the phenomena 
attributed to mesmerism may be again ventured. 
If philosophical witnesses have not avouched falla- 
cies and tricks to be facts and fair-dealing, we pos- 
sess demonstration that sensation is not essential 
to perception ; for men whom we have been accus- 
tomed to think shrewd physiologists, whose opinions 
in other matters have been deemed most wisely 
founded on observation, are ready to declare their 
conviction — that individuals in a certain state of 
mesmeric excitation, are in the habit of dispensing 



102 ATTENTION MODIFIES SENSATION. 

with the use of their senses in holding communica- 
tion with things about them. The cases of clair- 
voyance are numerous, and related with all appear- 
ance of honest simplicity, in most of the treatises 
on mesmerism. Now, if we may rely on these 
experiments, it follows, 

I. That the mind in the normal state perceives 
objects through sensation, but may, in a disturbed 
state, perceive objects directly. 

II. Objects perceived directly convey the same 
impression with objects perceived through sensa- 
tion; therefore external objects are real. 

III. The mind is capable of acting independent- 
ly of its organs ; therefore the mind may exist 
without the body (see Mayo on the Nervous Sys- 
tem). Since, then, it is so boldly declared that facts 
from all quarters conduce to such important con- 
clusions, it behooves the philosophic patiently to 
examine the records containing them, and, as far 
as possible, to test their truth by strict observation. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE FACULTY OF ABSTRACTION. 

The preceding facts, being viewed in connection, 
clearly prove that the mind is formed to be in ac- 
tion when impressed, and that it does not grow out 
of sensations, but is qualified to avail itself of their 
help in the acquisition of truth. In proportion as 
we become acquainted with moral relations, we 
become conscious of responsibility, and then our 
individuality takes its highest standing. We per- 
ceive that on the direction of our voluntary ener- 
gies depends either our weal or our wo ; because 
we possess the faculty of willing according to our 
knowledge, and of fixing our attention on objects 
according to the end we would attain. Let us not, 
however, venture upon the metaphysical quicksand, 
but turn to our common experience of that condi- 
tion of the thinking principle in which we abstract 
our attention from surrounding objects, in order to 
fix it upon ideas existing in our memory or imagi- 
nation. 

The same being that employs a certain set of 
muscles for the accomplishment of its purposes, 
also exercises a control over the faculties with 
which his mind may be endowed, and to a great 



104 MENTAL ABSTRACTION. 

extent directs their operations according to the 
will, as long as the functions of the body allow. 
Probably in a perfect state, as regards physical ac- 
commodation, there would be no other limit to the 
exercise of this commanding power over the men- 
tal faculties than the necessary law of their consti- 
tution as mental, so that we might recall at will 
whatever passage of past experience we required 
to review, and, by the government of ideal associa- 
tions, compare fact with fact as might best subserve 
the interests of our reason. 

This power of reflecting on accumulated im- 
pressions in detail appears to be the distinguishing 
characteristic of human intelligence. It is pos- 
sessed by different individuals in very various de- 
grees, and, like all our other endowments, may be 
vastly improved by proper employment. In some 
persons of acknowledged judgment, from inordinate 
exercise or from morbid indisposition, abstraction 
nevertheless becomes closely allied to insanity. 

In the practice of abstraction, such as it is, the 
devotees of Budhism far excel our philosophers. 
It is indeed the highest attainment of that super- 
stition for persons so far to abstract themselves as 
to become unconscious of all external existence. 
Thus, we find individuals among them habitually 
submitting, with the most profound composure, to 
inflictions and influences which, to ordinary mor- 
tals, would induce the most terrible torment; but 
they really do not feel them, because they deter- 
mine not to feel. 

The Fakirs invert their eyes in silent contem- 
plation on the ceiling, then, gradually looking down, 



MENTAL ABSTRACTION. 105 

tliey fix both eyes, squinting at the tip of the nose, 
until, as they say, the blessings of a new light 
beam upon them. The monks of Mount Athos 
were accustomed, in a manner equally ridiculous 
and with the same success, to hold converse, as 
they fancied, with the Deity. Allatius thus de- 
scribes the directions for securing the celestial 
joys of Omphalopsychian contemplation : — " Press 
thy beard upon thy breast, turn thine eyes and 
thoughts upon the middle of thine abdomen ; per- 
severe for days and nights, and thou shalt know 
uninterrupted joys, when thy spirit shall have 
found out thy heart and illuminated itself." St. 
Augustin mentions a priest who could at will fall 
into these ecstasies, in which his senses were so 
forsaken by his soul as that he did not experience 
the pangs of the torture. 

A modern astronomer passed a whole night in 
the same attitude, observing a phenomenon in the 
sky, and on being accosted by some of the family 
in the morning, he said, " It must be thus ; I will 
go to bed before 'tis late!" He had gazed the 
whole night and did not know it. The mathema- 
tician Viote was sometimes so absorbed by his 
calculations that he has been known to pass three 
days and three nights without food. It is related 
of the Italian poet Marini, that while he was in- 
tensely engaged in revising his Adonis, he placed 
his leg on the fire, where it burned for some time 
without his being aware of it. The power of the 
mind in withdrawing itself from sensation can 
scarcely be more strongly exemplified. 

If a man of the finest faculties yields his reason 



106 MENTAL ABSTRACTION. 

to the fascinations of sensuality, he soon loses con- 
trol over the associations of his mind ; memory and 
judgment necessarily become impaired. Even a 
brief interruption to the habit of mental withdrawal 
from objects of sense renders a return to abstrac- 
tion a greater effort, especially if the senses have 
in the interval been occupied by objects that 
powerfully excite the passions. iHence we see the 
necessity of comparative sequestration, and temper- 
ate management of the body to the student's suc- 
cess, land hence too we learn that diversity of 
objects is the natural remedy for morbid abstrac- 
tion. The case of Brindley, the celebrated engi- 
neer, illustrates these observations. His memory 
and abstraction were so great, that although he 
could scarcely read or write, he executed the most 
elaborate and complex plans as a matter of course, 
without committing them to paper. But this 
power was so completely disturbed after seeing a 
play, that he could not for a long time afterward, 
resume his usual pursuits. 

That degree of abstractedness which approaches 
to dreaming is so essential to powerful intellectual 
effort, that Dr. Macnish, in his " Philosophy of 
Sleep," includes all the higher exercises of genius 
in his idea of dreaming. He says poems are wak- 
ing dreams, the aristocratic indulgences of the 
intellect, the luxuries of otherwise unemployed 
minds ; Milton's Paradise Lost is but a sublime 
hallucination, Michael Angelo's painting in the 
Sistine Chapel are elaborated dreams. According 
to this view of the subject the mind is most spirit- 
ualized when least awake. But surely such a 



MENTAL ABSTRACTION. 107 

conclusion is contrary to reason; for who can be- 
lieve that voluntary mental abstraction is not 
associated with vigilance of spirit, or that the ex- 
ercise of memory and imagination is not compatible 
with sound judgment 1 As well may we say that, 
to look steadily over the past, and thence to antici- 
pate the future, is but to dream ; and carefully to 
examine the way we have come and the way we 
are going, is to prove ourselves sound asleep. 
Reason acquires her proper dominion by abstrac- 
tion from the senses, by her use of memory and 
imagination, or else there is no reality — no truth 
beyond bodily sensation. It is true that the poetic 
imagination imbues the commonest circumstances 
with a coloring which the vulgar mind regards as ex- 
aggerated ; but yet the most successful exercises of 
creative genius are remarkable for their philosophic 
truthfulness, and the mind which reasons abstract- 
edly, that is, while voluntarily dissociated from the 
circumstances and the senses of the body, is most 
conversant with the great principles which connect 
all science, all art, all moral, and all physical rela- 
tions, with the truth that commends itself equally 
to the admiring understanding and to the convicted 
conscience as in the sight of God. Those whom 
sensualists have deemed madmen and dreamers 
have been the enlighteners of their race. They 
have ascended in their thoughts out of the sight of 
the common down-looking men of this world, and 
have held their lamp of life to be relumed at the 
sun of another and higher system, which can not 
be reached by telescopes, but is realized by faith. 
Divine Wisdom has created the mind of man of too 



108 MENTAL ABSTRACTION. 

expansive a nature to be properly limited by the 
atmosphere and attractions of earth, and of too 
inquisitive and spiritual a capacity to be quite easy 
in believing only in the properties of matter. 
Those persons really dream who see no farther 
than the surface ; who realize nothing beyond the 
evidence of the senses, and read not spiritually the 
meaning of the grand panorama spread before 
their eyes. But those are vividly and vigorously 
awake who can withdraw themselves from sounds 
and colors, that they may reflect upon treasured 
ideas, and interpret the mystery of their existence 
by enjoying their spiritual faculties, in intercourse 
with other minds and in communion with their 
Eternal Parent. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ABSENCE AND ABSTRAC- 
TION OF MIND, AND THEIR RELATIONS TO THE 
STATE OF THE WILL IN CONNECTION WITH THE 
BODY. 

It is well to consider the difference between ab- 
sence and abstraction of mind. The former is a 
mere morbid vacuity, a listless habit, or unmeaning 
dreaminess ; the latter, a full and intent occupation. 
Absence is much known in brown-study, and after 
dinner, by the winter fire. It is also common in 
church and in school, at lectures, and at lessons. 
But mental abstraction is an active and self-absorb- 
ing process, in which a powerful and cultivated 
will sustains the soul in that intellectual exultation 
which constitutes the habit of true genius. Absence 
of mind, like sleep, is common to us all, but volun- 
tary abstraction, to the extent which is necessary to 
great excellence, and for the purpose of enjoying 
truth, or realizing fiction, like the clairvoyance of 
mesmerism, is a rare endowment, by which the pos- 
sessor dwells, as nearly as may be in consistence 
with bodily life, in the purer region of the spirit. 
But there is danger in all sublunary enjoyments. 
Intellectual objects are often pursued to the very 
verge of that abyss by which Omnipotence has 
K 



110 ABSENCE AND ABSTRACTION OF MIND 

wisely limited the sphere of human thought, and 
thus many perish as regards all the proper uses of 
their present being, while distrust and discontent 
become stamped upon their features, and incor- 
porated with every atom of their substance. By 
boldly venturing on speculative self-indulgence, they 
madly leap the bounds of rational inquiry, and then 
quarrel with their God, because he is pleased to 
surround creation with an outer darkness, in which 
perverted reason, thus proudly endeavoring to pen- 
etrate, becomes involved, perhaps forever. The 
history of every age, from that of Eden to the pres- 
ent era, proves that the mental faculties, as well as 
the grosser appetites to which our fallen nature is 
subject, require the dominant control of moral and 
religious principles for their safe and happy exer- 
cise. Presumption plucks only evil from the tree 
of knowledge, while indifference lies blighted even 
beneath the tree of life. 

When a person becomes addicted to the habit 
of mental absence, he of course becomes more and 
more infirm of purpose ; his will has no employment 
in the control of his thoughts ; his moral as well as 
mental constitution is on the extreme edge of dan- 
ger; the total and eternal death of his soul is at 
hand. The mind can not be elevated above the 
gross air and night-hag hauntings of sensuality, nor 
be endowed with the delight of true freedom and 
power, unless objects are set before it of a spiritual 
and eternally-enlarging nature. If we understand 
not our relation to other beings, we lose our inter- 
est in them, and soon cease to be attracted toward 
them but by sensual impulses. Human affection 



IN RELATION TO WILL. Ill 

and intellect both fail of their proper ends, unless 
reason be employed in consecutive thought, that is, 
in comparing facts and deducing truths. The idle 
or absent man is one who thinks not for himself as 
a part of a grand community of minds. He can 
not be said to be educated. If his mind grow, it is 
only, like a jungle-creeper, to encumber others. 
His busiest thinkings are mere outlines of bodily 
sensations. He owns no claims superior to his 
own, no active charities dwell in his heart; his 
faith, if he have any, is not, like God's gift, large 
and beneficent, as all God's gifts are when duly ex- 
ercised, but all his affections are contracted and 
centered in his little bodily self. He shrinks from 
Christianity ; its demands are too great for him, as 
it requires intellectual agony and the crucifixion of 
the lower self for the regeneration in glory of the 
higher self. There must be the struggling out of 
chaos into new creation by the spirit, but he is sat- 
isfied with his own bubble, and gazes only on that 
till it bursts. He is miserably weak, because he 
has not been obedient to the divine law, which 
w T ouid have urged him to triumph over circum- 
stances and selfishness by acting, like a man, with 
a worthy, because a rational, end in view ; for to 
seek aright for honor and immortality is to cooperate 
with God. 

The man of sequestered habits, indeed, rightly 
demands our admiration, if, in the voluntary sur- 
render of delightful sociality, the efforts of his soul 
be directed to the contrivance and accomplishment 
of means to ameliorate the condition of his fellow- 
man ; but the absurd trifler, who prefers absence 



1X2 ABSENCE And abstraction of mind 

of mind from feebleness of will, or because, in his 
sickly pride, he happens to have disgusted himself 
with the common business of earth, is unfit for 
friendship, and incapable of love — all his ideas of 
happiness arise and end in the body, and the prop- 
er home of his spirit is the dreary solitude which 
selfishness creates ; for if the body be not kept 
under by proper employment of mind, reason 
yields to madness, and the man is driven to the 
desert or among the tombs by a legion of familiar 
spirits within him, which can neither be bound nor 
dispossessed. This is the frequent catastrophe of 
refusing to act for eternity, by maintaining domin- 
ion over the body. 

To the will all knowledge appeals ; and to 
rectify its wandering tendencies, revealed truth 
addresses our reason and demands our faith. Re- 
ligion implies the belief of an unapprehended series 
of realities, above our present nature, to be hoped 
for and to be attained ; because the very announce- 
ment of these truths inspires a desire, that, as it 
grows, elevates us into the region to which all 
true spiritual thought, feeling, and action properly 
and alone belong. Let us reflect, then, again and 
again, that the power of directing the attention by 
a voluntary process of abstraction from those ob- 
jects which invite the senses, for the purpose of 
regarding ideas in the memory, constitutes the dis- 
tinctive characteristic of human intellect ; and that 
the superiority of one mind over another is neces- 
sarily determined by the degree in which this gift 
is granted and is cultivated. The will makes the 
man, and his future history hangs on its present state. 



IN RELATION TO WILL. 113 

When Newton was asked how he discovered the 
system of the universe, he answered, " By thinking 
about it." This thinking to an end is the glory 
of mind. The power of fixing the intellect on an 
object, and bringing all facts within our knowledge 
that by possibility relate to that object, to elucidate 
it ; and also the search after new facts, with a pre- 
sentiment of their existence, prove that the human 
understanding is constituted in keeping with the 
mind which contrived the universe. Perceiving the 
reason of one fact, the human intellect correctly 
infers the reason why other facts should be found. 
We find whatever we reasonably look for. We 
naturally expect consistency ; for the plan of Om- 
nipotence agrees with reason — it is pure reason. 
On this ground the man of sagacity sets himself to 
think of a subject, with a faith in the powers of his 
mind; a conviction that, by continuing to attend 
to objects of thought, he will see their connection 
and relation. Thus one thought awakes ten thou- 
sand ; and these all move, like an army, in obedi- 
ence to one will, and to one purpose. By urging 
our attention, with strenuous effort, higher and 
higher, we triumph over the distractions of sense ; 
and in the calm above, to which the spirit climbs 
through clouds and Alpine qbstacles, the sky ap- 
pears as that of another world. 

" As some strange thoughts transcend our wonted themes, 
And into glory peep." — H. Vaughan. 

Of course the moral perception must precede 
and guide the intellectual faculty, or otherwise the 
mind becomes meteoric and uncertain ; being ex? 



114 ABSENCE AND ABSTRACTION OF MIND 

cited into action, not according to a choice induced 
by regard to moral results, but according to acci- 
dent, or as objects may happen to be more or less 
pleasing or repulsive. In fact, it appears that, 
unless the mind be employed in obedient accord- 
ance to a higher will than that which belongs to 
itself, education or improvement, except in a brutal 
or mechanical sense, is not possible. Hence the 
necessity of a conscientious regard to the dictates 
of divine will, in order to advancement in the un- 
derstanding and enjoyment of the highest class of 
truths, — those which relate to the proper uses of 
the body and to spirit, considered as moral and 
religious. Here we see why the wise of former 
ages, who possessed a strong reason, although but 
a feeble glimmering of the light, which the first 
tradition shed on the young world, constantly 
looked for a coming revelation concerning future 
existence ; from which man might more fully leam 
his duty toward God, and thus reach further in his 
apprehension of immortality, goodness, and truth. 
Here, then, we arrive at the point. However in- 
geniously men may reason concerning the evolution 
of mind from matter, they never can reconcile facts 
with their theories, nor in any way account for the 
operations of consciousness and volition but by 
supposing spiritual existence. It is, however, con- 
solatory to discover, that the more we investigate 
our mental and physical nature, the more reason 
we find to receive, with implicit faith, the knowl- 
edge that is brought to our minds in the book 
which bears on its pages the demonstration of its 
being the revealed information which the Maker 



IN RELATION TO WILL. 115 

of man condescends in mercy to communicate to 
him, and which, moreover, they who study wisely 
find to be exactly of the kind they needed. 

Without the individual endowment of will, we 
could not feel otherwise than as a part or a prop- 
erty of another being, if, indeed, the very idea of 
feeling does not imply a distinct personality in that 
which feels. But we all act, if not with the con- 
viction that we must answer for our deeds to Him 
who has so variously endowed us, at least with a 
feeling that we must all individually reap the result 
of our own conduct, unless Omnipotence interfere 
with his own laws. None but a being in some 
measure apprehending the mind of its Maker, can 
be governed by moral laws, or be made to feel as 
we all do, from an intuitive conviction, however 
disobeyed or however condemning, that the law, 
written on the heart by the finger of God, is holy, 
just, and good. This proves that the human mind 
acknowledges no lasting relationship with thiugs 
that perish ; for a man that has been taught to love 
moral truth can not afterward be satisfied with de- 
fects : his will and his love must seek for rest in 
moral perfection and eternal life, that is, in God. 
We may then well conclude this chapter in the lan- 
guage of Holy Writ, and say, there is a spirit in 
man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him 
understanding. Law and conscience spring not 
from the dust. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE ACTION OP MIND ON THE NERVOUS ORGANI- 
ZATION IN MEMORY, ETC. 

The operation of* the soul upon the body, and 
the incorporeal origin and end of mind, will be fur- 
ther rendered manifest by meditating on another 
endowment, namely, memory. This, indeed, is 
presupposed in the idea of abstraction ; since we 
can not contemplate or reflect unless the mind be 
previously furnished with objects, or the remem- 
bered images of past impressions. We may dwell 
the rather on this faculty as it is essential to the 
exercise of thought, and must precede reasoning. 
Hesiod said, " the nine muses are the daughters of 
Mnemosyne ;" and rightly does he thus determine, 
since without memory they never could have ex* 
isted, for every production of human intellect has 
its origin in this faculty ; hence the mind of the ra- 
tional being is first exercised in examining objects 
and enjoying sensations, since. the remembrance of 
these constitute the groundwork of reflection and 
of forethought. The infant's reason requires only 
familiarity with facts, and the opportunity of com- 
paring them with each other, to become manifest 
and perfect. Thus it happens that savage tribes, 



ACTION OP MIND ON NERVOUS ORGANIZATION. 117 

and persons wholly without education, exhibit so 
many of the characteristics of childhood. 

It is not my purpose to investigate this faculty in 
philosophical order, but to relate certain facts in 
connection with its exercise, which may assist us 
in deducing further inferences concerning the inde- 
pendence and management of the thinking princi- 
ple. Attention and association are generally deem- 
ed essential to the memory, but experience certainly 
proves that its extent or capacity does not entirely 
depend on what is commonly understood by atten- 
tion and association. At least we find that, in many 
instances, we can not detect the association ; nor 
does it often appear that facility of recollection is in 
proportion to the effort to attend and to retain, but 
rather to the suitability of the subject to the men- 
tal character and habit of the individual. 

A gentleman engaged in a banking establishment 
made an error in his accounts, and, after an inter- 
val of several months, spent days and nights in vain 
endeavors to discover where the mistake lay. At 
length, worn out by fatigue, he went to bed, and in 
a dream recollected all the circumstances that gave 
rise to the error. He remembered that on a cer- 
tain day several persons were waiting in the bank, 
when one individual, who was a most annoying 
stammerer, became so excessively impatient and 
noisy that, to get rid of him, his money was paid 
before his turn, and the entrance of this sum was 
neglected, and thus arose the deficiency in the ac- 
count. Now here we have an instance of memory 
without association ; because the impression was 
one of which there was no consciousness at the time 



118 THE ACTION OF MIND ON 

when it occurred ; for the fact on which the case 
rested was not his having paid the money, but his 
having neglected to insert the payment. 

Our memory, as available for the common pur- 
poses of intelligence, appears to be in proportion to 
the interest we take in any subject by nature, habit, 
or education. We remember most distinctly, ac- 
cording to the common law of association, those 
things which relate to our chosen pursuits, or which 
impress us through our keenest and most engross- 
ing affections. We recall even the sufferings of 
the body in connection with some state of our pas- 
sions which those sufferings excited. Hence the 
injurious effect of tyrannical punishments on the 
youthful mind. Such arbitrary inflictions, not being 
accompanied with a moral persuasion of propriety 
and kind intention, engender slavish fear and con- 
tempt. The despotic might that wounds the body 
merely to enforce its will is necessarily despised ; 
and while the body suffers under it, terror and re- 
venge are the only passions excited ; for gentleness 
and love alone produce repentance. The passions, 
excited by the punishment, recur on the remem- 
brance of the pain endured ; and thus a repetition 
of such punishment makes either a coward or a vil- 
lain, or more probably both ; for fear and hatred 
become the habit of every mind that suffers without 
the conviction that justice and love are one. 

There can be no doubt that ordinarily we best 
remember what most strongly affects us, either 
agreeably or otherwise. But this faculty is so 
variously modified in different individuals, that the 
effort or the enjoyment which some find necessary 



THE NERVOUS ORGANIZATION. 119 

to fix. objects upon the mind, others feel to be only 
impediments to the process. The late Dr. Leyden, 
who could repeat, verbatim, a long act of parlia- 
ment after having once read it, found this kind of 
memory an inconvenience rather than an advan- 
tage, because he could never recollect any particu- 
lar point in the act without repeating to himself all 
that preceded the part he required. 

The memory of reasoning is strong in propor- 
tion to the distinctness of apprehension and the 
linking together of accordant jdeas. We hold 
most firmly what we grasp most completely. The 
memory of sensation is generally proportioned to 
the acuteness of sensation ; but a rapid succession 
of ideas is constantly obliterating previous impres- 
sions, by stamping new ones. Yet it appears, from 
facts, that the impressions always remain distinct 
in the mind, and require only a proper condition 
to be so perceived and read off in the order in which 
they were received. The manner also in which 
the acquisition is made greatly influences the 
power of retention and of reproduction. Thus, 
under the urgency of a pressing occasion, a cele- 
brated actor prepared himself for a new, long, and 
difficult part in a surprisingly short space of time. 
He performed it with perfect accuracy ; but the 
performance was no sooner over than every word 
was forgotten — at least no effort could recall them, 
although doubtless they were retained, and would 
return to the perception of the mind under favor- 
able circumstances. 

But it should be understood that there are sev- 
eral leading phenomena referable to the head of 



120 THE ACTION OF MIND ON 

memory. There is the simple latent retention of 
whatever impression on the senses conveys to the 
mind, which constitutes memory strictly speaking. 
There is recollection, or the voluntary reproduc- 
tion of those impressions ; and there is conception 
such as the painter or the poet evinces, who accu- 
rately and vividly delineates past occurrences, 
absent friends, and remembered scenes, with the 
force of present reality. The performer, before 
mentioned, doubtless possessed the memory of the 
part he acted, although he could never afterward 
recall it. He recollected other characters well, 
because they were deliberately acquired. The 
power of memory in connection with association 
appears to be influenced by the direction and 
intensity of the will, that is to the degree and kind 
of attention required : perhaps the state of our af- 
fections has more to do with this faculty than with 
any other. Recollection is of vast importance to 
our common intercourse ; but abstract memory is 
probably more important to the actual education 
of the soul ; since the memory, which is altogether 
latent and concealed under one set of circumstan- 
ces, becomes active and useful under another. 
Like certain pictures, they appear and disappear 
according to the direction of the light. 

The reproduction of impressions in that exercise 
or condition of mind called conception affords very 
striking evidence that ideas once received are, as it 
were, stereotyped on the memory. They are not 
painted in fading colors, but seem only to require 
a certain disengagedness of the attention from 
other objects to be again perceived as vividly as 



THE NERVOUS ORGANIZATION. 121 

ever. Thus we see the reason why seclusion and 
mental abstraction are so naturally sought, when 
we wish to recall the past, or studiously to review 
a subject with which we have been familiar. By 
voluntary effort we put ourselves into the most 
favorable position for the retrospect ; for we are 
endowed with a consciousness that the images and 
perceptions at any time experienced still belong to 
us, and may again be felt, if the impressions of the 
present could but be removed from before the eye 
of mind. The obstacles to this spiritual sight are 
often, as it were, accidentally dissipated, and the 
past, assumes all its pristine reality — a beautiful 
example of which occurs in the life of Niebuhr, 
the celebrated Danish traveler : " When old, blind, 
and so infirm, that he was able only to be carried 
from his bed to his chair, he used to describe to 
his friends the scenes which he had visited in his 
early days with wonderful minuteness and vivacity. 
When they expressed their astonishment, he told 
them that as he lay in bed, all visible objects being 
shut out, the pictures of what he had seen in the 
East continually floated before his mind's eye, so 
that it was no wonder he could speak to them as 
if he had seen them yesterday. With like vivid- 
ness the deep intense sky of Asia, with its brilliant 
and twinkling host of stars, which he had so often 
gazed at by night, or its lofty vault of blue by day, 
was reflected in the hours of stillness and darkness 
on his inmost soul."* 

This may perhaps be considered as an example 
of the highest degree of healthy conception ; that 
* Dr. Abercrombie. 

L 



122 THE ACTION OF MIND ON 

is, the voluntary abstraction of the mind allowing 
the past to appear in its original order and clear- 
ness. That remarkable phenomenon which drown- 
ing persons and others on the verge of death have 
often been known to experience, belongs to the 
same property of the soul, for they have described 
the state of their memories under these mysterious 
circumstances, as representing the history of their 
lives, at once and altogether, like a vast tableau 
vivant. But, probably, an approach to this sight 
of our realized existence, more or less confused 
with our consciousness of the present, is essential 
to the exercise of memory : a certain state of 
mind associates past ideas with certain sights and 
sounds, and we mentally again perceive the past 
as if present. 

Something like this leads to that state on which 
depends the theory of apparitions or spectral illu- 
sions, which seem to be only a more disjointed 
attention to reality or obliviousness of the present ; 
thus allowing former impressions to reappear as 
they occur in dreaming, the senses not being in a 
state of sufficient activity to prevent ideas from 
infringing on them. 

The following is another illustration of concep- 
tion, almost as striking as the foregoing : — " In the 
church of St. Peter, in Cologne, the altar-piece is 
a large and valuable picture of Rubens, represent- 
ing the martyrdom of the Apostle. This picture 
having been carried away by the French, in 1805, 
to the great regret of its inhabitants, a painter of 
that city undertook to make a copy of it from rec- 
ollection, and succeeded in doing so in such a 



THE NERVOUS ORGANIZATION. 123 

manner that the most delicate tints of the original 
are preserved with the most minute accuracy. 
The original painting has now been restored ; but 
the copy is preserved along with it, and even when 
they are rigidly compared, it is scarcely possible 
to distinguish the one from the other." 

The images of objects seem to be actually re- 
produced before the eye of the mind by a volun- 
tary effort, in every exercise of recollection ; and 
what is very surprising, the images thus repro- 
duced by the will sometimes continue to obtrude 
themselves, even on the bodily sense, when the 
mind would fain dismiss them, so as to assume 
that real appearance of the object thought of> 
which induces weak-minded persons to think that 
they have seen supernatural apparitions. Thus a 
gentleman, mentioned by Dr. Hibbert, having been 
told of the sudden death of a friend, saw him dis- 
tinctly when he walked out in the evening. " He 
was not in his usual dress, but in a coat of a differ- 
ent color, which he had left off wearing for some 
months. I could even remark a figured vest which 
he had worn about the same time, also a colored 
handkerchief around his neck, in which I had 
used to see him in the morning." 

The power of the mind to imbody whatever it 
strongly conceives is strikingly demonstrated in 
those cases in which a number of persons have 
imagined themselves to have seen the same appa- 
rition. Thus a whole ship's crew were thrown 
into consternation by the ghost of the cook, who 
had died a few days before. He was distinctly seen 
by them all, walking on the water, with a peculiar 



124 THE ACTION OF MIND ON 

gait by which he was distinguished, one of his legs 
being shorter than the other. The cook, so plainly 
recognized, was only a piece of old wreck. In 
such instances, which are common, it is manifest 
that the mind so impresses the sense of sight with 
past realities, that it perceives only what imagina- 
tion presents. 

" Such tricks hath strong imagination, 
That, if it would but apprehend some joy, 
It comprehends some bringer of that joy ; 
Or, in the night imagining some fear, 
How easy is a bush supposed a bear." — Shakspeare. 

Now it is clear, from every example of recol- 
lection, that ideas do not affix themselves in any 
structure of the body, for every atom of it is suc- 
cessively removed in the processes of vital action. 
A man's body does not continue to exist of the 
same identical materials; therefore it follows, as 
an inevitable conclusion, that memory is not a 
record written there ; the store of ideas must be- 
long to an independent, unchanging being; for 
whenever they are reproduced they are found un- 
altered, and must therefore have existed in that 
which does not change, namely, the undecaying soul. 

Those things which belong to our moral being 
most powerfully affect our minds, and most strongly 
cleave even to our ordinary memory ; and if it were 
not so, religious truth could not regenerate the 
world. Mr. Moffat, the missionary, says, that 
when he had concluded a long sermon, to a great 
number of African savages, his hearers divided 
into companies, to talk the subject over. " While 
thus engaged, my attention was arrested by a sim- 



THE NERVOUS ORGANIZATION. 125 

p e-looking young man, at a short distance. The 
person referred to was holding forth, with great 
animation, to a number of people, who were all 
attention. On approaching, I found, to my sur- 
prise, that he was preaching my sermon over 
again, with uncommon precision and with great 
solemnity, imitating, as nearly as he could, the 
gestures of the original. A greater contrast could 
scarcely be conceived, than the fantastic figure 
and the solemnity of his language — his subject 
being eternity, while he evidently felt what he 
spoke. Not wishing to disturb him, I allowed 
him to finish the recital, and seeing him soon 
after, told him that he could do what I was sure 
T could not, — that was, preach again the same 
sermon verbatim. He did not appear vain of his 
superior memory : - When I hear any thing great/ 
he said, touching his forehead with his finger, ' it 
remains there.' " 

This anecdote affords us an interesting evidence 
that memory, in connection with the intuitive ap- 
preciation of vast truths, is characteristic of savage 
as well as civilized man ; in short, it shows that 
the mind was created for truth, and to be governed 
by it. The rapid and immense improvement in 
the social and religious condition of these and 
other degraded tribes of mankind, under the per- 
suasive operation of doctrines calculated to direct 
the will, especially by their hold upon the memory, 
and thence to inspire the conduct with command- 
ing and ennobling motives, is a beautiful fact ; at 
once proving the fitness of the Christian doctrines 
for the moral constitution of man, and the unreason- 



126 THE ACTION OF MIND ON 

ableness of that philosophy which, in spite of the 
world's experience, attempts to teach us that the 
brain of a man must be remodeled before he can 
be mentally regenerated. If this be true, what 
a sudden development of new organs or new ac- 
tivities of brain must have happened in the South 
Sea Islands, and what a new state of cranium 
must the sensual atheist experience, who, by a 
flash of thought, is struck from his elevation of 
self-conceit and self-adoration into an humble con- 
viction of dependence on his God and Savior ! 

Man's spiritual nature is rooted in his knowl- 
edge or memory, and as he believes, so will he 
act ; as he receives truth, so is he influenced ; and 
truth penetrates like the sword of the Spirit, open- 
ing every mind that it strikes for the reception of a 
world of new realities. Let the will be arrested, 
and the attention fixed to look upon the Grospel, 
and its grandeur becomes manifest and influential. 
As, when a man like Newton, having the idea of 
gravitation forced upon his attention, gradually be- 
holds the universe hanging together and in motion 
thereby, and makes all his calculations in keeping 
with that knowledge ; so the Christian sees in one 
grand truth the harmonizing power of all worlds, 
and calculates only on the force of love as the gov- 
erning principle of Heaven. 

A man never forgets, however he may neglect, 
the truth which he has willingly admitted to his 
mind as a ruling principle — that is, a truth com- 
mended to his conscience. As the poor African 
said, "When I hear any thing great it remains ;" 
so whatever we feel to be morally true will cleave 



THE NERVOUS ORGANIZATION. 127 

cither to torment or to delight us, according to 
its nature, and according to our felt obedience to 
the master truths — the demands of God upon our 
being. 

Memory, then, is not the spontaneous action of 
an apparatus, like Babbage's calculating machine, 
with figures that revolve in endless combination. 
It is a state of mind. Mind produces it. Even 
those figures, thus revolving and combining, ex- 
isted in all their power of infinite reproduction in 
the mind that conceived the method of thus evolv- 
ing " numbers beyond number numberless," from 
the transportations and combinations of only nine 
remembered units. Thus, perhaps, from the vast 
but limited multitude of ideas derived from the 
impressions in time, eternity may be filled with 
thoughts. The order and happiness resulting from 
their endless multiplication will depend on the few 
regulating principles which God has given to us in 
his law, and if this continue to be broken, the con- 
fusion and misery of our spirits will be as endless 
as our capacity of thinking. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE CONNECTION OF MEMORY WITH THE HABIT AND 
CONDITION OP THE BRAIN, AND THE USE OF THE 
BODY. 

Intimacy with facts and things in their mutual 
influence on each other constitutes our individual 
world of knowledge, and this acquaintance with 
circumstances or things remains in our minds with- 
out a necessary connection with language. Ideas 
must generally be presented by words from one 
mind to another in this state of being; but, that 
ideas once produced exist in the mind, independ- 
ently of their conventional associates, is testified by 
a great variety of facts, especially in the history of 
disease, as it affects the manifestation of mind ; and 
this it does, more or less, in every instance, as we 
have already seen; because what is called health 
is nothing more than the state of body best adapted 
for the exercise and training of the soul in its inter- 
course with the material world. Memory, like all 
other mental manifestation, is suspended by press- 
ure on the brain, and in fact by any thing which 
powerfully disturbs its functions ; hence it is pre- 
sumed by some physiologists that memory has no 
existence but as a function of the brain, and many 



CONNECTION OF MEMORY WITH THE BRAIN. 129 

wonderful cases of recovery from cerebral injury, 
with restoration of this faculty, are referred to in 
proof that the brain is the sole cause of remem- 
brance. The brain of course is necessary to con- 
scious existence, such as we experience, and there- 
fore of course it is essential to memory in connec- 
tion with the active manifestation of this life ; but 
yet the very facts which are quoted as evidences 
that memory is a function of the brain, also afford 
us positive proof that it is something more. 

I knew an intelligent lady, who suddenly lost all 
association between ideas and language. She be- 
came as completely destitute of speech as a new- 
born infant. Under medical treatment, however, 
she gradually recovered ; she again learned to 
speak, read, and write, just as a child learns, until 
some months after the attack, when her former in- 
formation and faculty rapidly returned. She told 
me that her remembrance of facts was as clear as 
ever during this speechless state— all she had lost 
was language. Even her recollection of music was 
perfect, and she performed elaborate pieces with 
her accustomed skill, although not a single idea in 
her mind could present itself in words. She soon 
afterward died suddenly of apoplexy, and the cause 
of the impediment was then proved to exist in dis- 
ease of the brain. 

A degree of this disorder occurs when the brain 
has suffered from fatigue, as in the case of Spald- 
ing, a celebrated scholar in Germany, who being 
called on to write after great exertion and distrac- 
tion of mind, found himself incapable of proceeding 
correctly beyond the first two words. The char-* 
9 



130 CONNECTION OF MEMORY WITH THE 

acters he continued to make were not what he 
meant, but he knew not where the fault lay. His 
speech failed in the same manner ; he spoke other 
words than he intended, although he knew every 
thing around him, and his senses continued perfect. 
On resting and refreshing his nervous system the 
confusion was removed. 

This loss of association between words and ideas 
is often observed in paralytics. It is probable that 
persons laboring under such malady are always 
conscious that the sounds they utter are unintelli- 
gible to those whom they address, and their dis- 
tress is greatly aggravated by the fact. This was 
the case with the lady just mentioned. Patients 
are rarely able to give us a distinct account of their 
sensations under such circumstances. Dr. Holland, 
however, also relates an instance to the point, in 
which loss of memory and articulation of words 
followed an accident in an aged gentleman. " He 
could not remember the names of his servants ; 
nor, when wishing to express his wants to them, 
could he find right words to do so. He was con- 
scious of uttering unmeaning sounds, and reasoned 
on the singularity at the time, as he afterward 
stated." The organs influenced by the will are 
more or less disordered when the power of recol- 
lection is morbidly defective, as in palsy. This dis- 
ease is accompanied by an unsteadiness and tremor, 
or rigidity of the muscles, as well as an incapacity 
of fixing the attention. There is some interference 
with the muscular sense, by which we prepare our- 
selves for the use of our other senses. 

Here ^t may not be inappropriate to observe 



HABIT AND CONDITION OF THE BRAIN. 131 

the connection between attention, memory, and 
muscular action. All the voluntary activities of 
our bodies are modified by the state of our memo- 
ries in relation to our senses, more particularly 
to the muscular sense, or that feeling by which 
we regulate our movements in regard to gravita- 
tion and avoid danger. Although we seem not 
to attend to our ordinary muscular actions, yet 
we really do attend to them, and in fact exercise a 
power of comparison in every intentional move- 
ment. We walk according to our experience in 
the use of our legs and feet, and we handle ob- 
jects as we have before felt. We balance our 
muscles instinctively in every effort, according to 
the necessity which former circumstances may 
have suggested. We take not a cup in our hand 
without previously preparing ourselves, and the 
will braces the muscles for the purpose, in keep- 
ing with our preconceived notion of the weight 
of the body to be lifted. Let a person, unac- 
quainted with its weight, attempt to take up a cup 
of mercury, and he will probably spill its contents. 
Other complicated and rapid movements of the 
hand, in the delicate execution of works of art and 
manufacture, require an apt and ready memory, 
as well as a well-trained and active hand. An 
impairment of memory destroys the steady quick- 
ness that is required. We find that, in the cotton 
mills, the activities of the brain are tried to such 
a degree by steam and ingenuity, that certain 
movements of the machinery can only be followed 
by persons possessed of quick memory and cor- 
responding nervous energy; and hence that these 



132 CONNECTION OF MEMORY WITH THE 

parts of the work can only be accomplished or 
tolerated by individuals from puberty to manhood; 
because, £t that period alone is the association be- 
tween memory and action sufficiently electric to 
suit the market^ 

Mental education improves the grace and ex- 
pressiveness of the body, at least of the features, 
to so great an extent as to be commonly acknowl- 
edged as a powerful cause of the influence which 
men maintain over each other. The specific dis- 
tinction between an educated and an uneducated 
man is in the power of reflection ; the memory of 
the former having been trained, that of the latter 
being left wild. This training of memory affects 
the whole tone, character, and bodily deportment 
of a man. As a voluntary effort of memory is 
attended by a peculiar fixedness of the body, and 
a steadiness of the senses, which are necessary to 
preserve the attention to associated ideas, the 
habit of this effort imparts a deliberative expres- 
sion to the features, and causes even a man's mus- 
cular movements to partake of the more measured 
and sedate tendency of his mind. Hence also it 
may fairly be concluded, that one who has been 
accustomed rationally to apply this faculty, is bet- 
ter qualified to control his instincts, to govern his 
passions, and to regulate all those impulses which 
spring immediately from his physical constitution. 
Hence, too, natural philosophers, men who remem- 
ber, collect, and think on facts, are less disposed 
to insanity than are poets and persons who de- 
light in imagination without an orderly and proper 
cultivation of memory. In short, proper applica- 



HABIT AND CONDITION OF THE BRAIN. 133 

tion of this endowment is the foundation of physi- 
cal as well as mental and moral improvement. 
Those nations have the best formed heads who 
have been possessed of the best histories or tradi- 
tions, and who have been called to the highest 
exercise of memory ; for in this consists the prin- 
cipal means of advancing the arts of civilization 
and of maintaining the dominion of truth and 
religion both over mind and body. The very act 
of acquiring, recording, or recollecting true knowl- 
edge is attended by a state of brain and a sobriety 
of manner which tend at once to imbody, imper- 
sonate, and fix its advantages in the individual so 
employed, and to perpetuate the benefit in his off- 
spring. If therefore the increase of schools did 
nothing more than demand a general employment 
of youthful memory in acquiring truth, it would 
accomplish immense good, for this is always asso- 
ciated more or less with control of the body, and it 
will moreover be the groundwork of right reason 
when coming circumstances shall require severer 
exercise of intellect. 

M 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE INFLUENCE OF MENTAL HABIT ON THE CHARAC- 
TER OF THE MEMORY. 

It is remarkable that persons endowed with an 
energetic and busy imagination have been fre- 
quently most defective as regards verbal memory, 
at least in the power of recollecting words. Thus 
Rousseau and Coleridge always found it difficult 
to remember even a few verses, although composed 
by themselves. The reason seems to be, that their 
minds quickly caught hold of the ideas expressed, 
and at once associated them with others, much in 
the same manner that we find delirious persons 
do under certain conditions of the nervous system ; 
the powers of perception being entire, but the at- 
tention being occupied by mental objects rather 
than sensible ones, as already described under the 
head of , abstraction. The nervous system of such 
persons is employed in other relations than those 
best adapted to the use of memory. 

The celebrated Porson was a man of a contrary 
stamp. Recollection was the habit of his mind, 
and his life was a mixed commentary on profane 
and sacred learning, and his genius was like a 
phosphorescence on the graves of the dead. It 



INFLUENCE OF HABIT ON MEMORY. 135 

is said of him that nothing came amiss to his mem- 
ory. " He would set a child right in his two- 
penny fable-book, repeat the whole of the moral 
tales of the Dean of Badajoz, a page of Athenaeus 
on cups, or of Eustathius on Homer. He could 
bring to bear at once on any question every pass- 
age from the whole range of Greek literature 
that could elucidate it ; and approximate on the 
instant the slightest coincidence in thought or ex- 
pression ; and the accuracy was quite as surprising 
as the extent of his recollection.' ' This facility 
was the result of early and continued habit. 

Dr. Arnold had a remarkable memory. He 
quoted from Dr. Priestley's Lectures on History, 
when in the professor's chair at Oxford, from the 
recollection of what he had only read when no 
more than eight years of age. His memory ex- 
tended to the exact state of the weather on par- 
ticular days, or the exact words and position of 
passages which he had not seen for twenty years. 
This faculty was more particularly acute on sub- 
jects of history and geography, from the early 
habit of exercising it on these subjects ; having 
been taught to go accurately through the stories 
of the pictures and portraits of the successive 
English reigns before he was eight years old, and 
being at that age accustomed to recognize at a 
glance the different counties of a dissected map of 
England. 

The power of memory, provided the brain be 
in a healthy state, will be proportioned to the 
determination with which an individual attends to 
the subject he would remember; that is, in pro- 



136 INFLUENCE OF MENTAL HABIT ON 

portion to the motive. If fancy interfere, memory 
is disturbed. This strength of purpose has always 
characterized those who have been celebrated for 
power of memory, and this will of course mainly 
arise from the feeling of importance which habit 
or teaching may attach to the object in view. 
Thus Cyrus is said to have learned the name of 
every soldier in his army, that he might be able to 
command them the better ; and Mithridates, for 
the same reason, became acquainted with the lan- 
guages of the twenty-two nations serving under 
his banners. It is stated by Eusebius that Esdras 
restored the sacred Hebrew Volumes by memory, 
when they had been destroyed by the Chaldeans. 
St. Anthony, the Egyptian hermit, could not read, 
but knew all the Scriptures by heart from having 
heard them. Pope Clement V. impaired his mem- 
ory from a fall on the head, but by dint of appli- 
cation he recovered its powers so completely, that 
Petrarch informs us that he never forgot any thing 
that he had once perused. 

Are we to conclude that this principle of the 
mind assumes varieties of manifestation, according 
to the facility which different conformations of brain 
or sense afford; or are w^e to infer that mind is 
created with diversified degrees and kinds of this 
capacity 1 Facts point to the conclusion that the 
manifestation of memory is modified by the state 
of the nervous system in relation to the power of 
attending. Hence memory is matured by habit ; 
for, in order to a perfect reminiscence, the mind 
must act upon the nervous organization in such a 
manner as to excite in it a sense of the images re- 



THE CHARACTER OF THE MEMORY. 137 

called. This is sometimes so powerfully excited, 
that we unintentionally imitate in our action that 
which we would describe. Circumstantial signs 
are associated in our ideas, and they often pro- 
duce the effect, not only in our minds, but in our 
features. Thus Descartes, being fondly in love 
with a girl who squinted, never spoke of her with- 
out squinting. 

If the brain be occupied or excited by disease, 
or distracted by mental perturbation, the will has 
but little power in directing the attention, either 
to the recollection of past impressions or to the 
observation of things present. A man is then said 
to be discomposed ; the healthy order of his thoughts 
is broken, his memory is confused, his attention dis- 
turbed. 

The habit of using the mind in any particular 
direction, or on any class of objects, gives a prom- 
inence and readiness to that part of the nervous 
system which is called into exercise, and therefore 
the memory employed in daily reasoning is facile, 
in proportion to habit, as long as we continue in 
health. The habit of mind, then, actually alters 
the condition and power of the instruments , of 
mental manifestation, and, within certain limits, 
qualifies it for use, according to the extent and 
kind of demand made upon it ; thus proving, 
beyond controversy, that ordinary memory de- 
pends on mental determination in the use of a 
healthy organization. The power itself originates 
in that which attends, intends, wills, and not in 
that which is acted on by the will. Seeing, then, 
that mental confusion arises from inaptitude of 

M* 



138 INFLUENCE OF MENTAL HABIT ON 

the brain, as relates to trie senses under the action 
of the will, we may fairly conclude that when the 
will shall act only in that which retains ideas, and 
deals with pure memory, there will be no confusion, 
but that all experienced facts will stand clearly in 
their exact order, as originally presented. As we 
advance in this subject we shall discover further 
reason for this conclusion. 

However excellent the development of a man's 
brain may be, he will be incapable of exercising 
his faculties to good purpose unless . he is ha- 
bituated to their control under the excitement of 
moral motives. The brain does not respond to 
the demands of reason but by degrees. It is not 
brought into a state suitable to the proper mani- 
festation of our faculties but by long habits. In 
fact the brain is not fully developed, as the instru- 
ment or medium of intellect, unless the mind have 
been regularly educated and drawn out by appro- 
priate employment during the period of its growth. 
The will, in exercising attention while acquiring 
knowledge and in reflection, that is, in using 
memory, really produces such a change in the 
size and order of the nervous fibrils of the brain, 
as to render it better and better adapted for use, 
as long as the laws of its formation allow or until 
disease interfere. We find then, instead of mind 
and memory resulting from brain, that brain, as 
far as it has relation to the mind, is developed and 
regulated in subserviency to the will : for, how- 
ever good the natural formation of a child's brain 
may be, he must grow up an idiot if his will be not 
called into action by moral influences ; that is, by 



THE CHARACTER OF THE MEMORY. 139 

sympathy with other spirits. The histories of Cas- 
par Hauser, Peter the Wild Boy, and others, eluci- 
date this subject and confirm this conclusion. 

The desperate shifts to which materialists are 
driven to avoid an acknowledgment of spiritual 
existence, appears most palpably in their endeav- 
ors, physiologically, to account for memory. They 
say, sensation is the only source of faculty. But 
then they fail to show what experiences sensa- 
tion. They add, sensation would be sterile, un- 
productive of will and memory, if it did not remain 
impressed on the tissue of the brain, so as to be 
found after many years. All we see, hear, feel, 
taste, conceive, — is, say they, incorporated and 
constitutes part and parcel of our brains. What 
" a book and volume" a well-stored brain must be, 
all alive with indelible sensations ! This theory, 
like many others, is indebted to poetry rather than 
logic, and it certainly was stolen from Shakspeare, 
who makes Hamlet thus philosophically promise 
the ghost of his royal father :— 

" Yea, from the table of my memory 
I'll wipe away all trivial, fond records, 
All saws of books, all forms of pleasures past, 
That youth and observation copied there ; 
And thy commandment all alone shall live 
Within the book and volume of my brain, 
Unmixed with baser matter." 

But it is surmised that the great dramatist in- 
tended, in the character of Hamlet, to represent a 
philosophical, poetical madman; and this theory 
of memory certainly appears well to become such 
a character; especially as he, at the same time, 
attributes a supremacy to the individual's will 



140 INFLUENCE OF MENTAL HABIT ON 

which it does not and can not possess; for how- 
ever we may desire it, to wipe away the record, 
however fond or trivial, is impossible, although we 
may indeed become for a time unconscious of its 
existence by a full occupation of the mind on new 
objects of thought. 

It must, however, be acknowledged, that the 
material hypothesis of memory has been presented 
in so beautiful a manner as to fascinate, if not to 
satisfy, the understanding. We need not be sur- 
prised at the almost infinite ideas which may be 
interwoven into the fibrils of the brain, since micro- 
scopic observers assure us that the smallest visible 
point of its substance is not more than the l-8000th 
of an inch in diameter; it is therefore estimated 
that eight thousand ideas may be represented on 
every square inch of the thinking nerve-matter; 
so that, considering the large surface of such mat- 
ter in man, he may be supposed in this manner 
capable of receiving some millions of simple ideas 
or impressions. It seems vain to say, as do some 
advocates of this notion, that such broad methods 
of accounting for ideas do not favor materialism. 
Surely, if ideas exist only in the brain and spinal 
marrow, to die is to lose them. But let us in- 
quire what is an idea 1 It is a mind-act, which can 
not be but in a conscious being. Something more 
than atoms must be required for the production 
and recognition of our mental impressions ; some- 
thing consenting — beside brain. As images on 
the retina are not ideas until a man attend to 
them — for he does not see them while his mind is 
intently engaged about other things — so whatever 



THE CHARACTER OF THE MEMORY. 141 

may exist actively or passively in the brain, affects 
not the consciousness till the mind is in corre- 
spondence with it. Conceive a man, say Milton, 
using imagination, memory, judgment, day after 
day, until the body is no longer convenient. He 
chooses, observe, to "justify the ways of God to 
man," but he does not meditate on knowledge 
really belonging to himself, but on the play of 
nerve-fibrils, which put him in mind of the past 
and present; for they in fact contain all his ideas, 
all his works, his experience, emotions, affections, 
thoughts. Now, if such be true, what was Milton 
when his body died ? Is there no answer ] Yes ! 
As that immortal spirit, when present in a com- 
modious body saw the " Paradise Lost" in the 
light which shone amid his darkness, so that same 
spirit, endowed with larger love and liberty and 
intellect, walks with God in the " Paradise Re- 
gained." His knowledge and inwrought history 
did not perish in the grave. 

Supposing that sensation and ideas were capable 
of being engraved, or cast, or daguereotyped on 
the leaves of the brain, the question still returns, 
what perceives them there ] The only possible 
answer is supplied in the Sacred Scripture : " No 
man knoweth the things of a man, but the spirit of 
man which is in him." The recurrence of the 
same ideas is only the recurrence of the same state 
in that which thinks ; but of course the same state 
in ordinary manifestation implies the return of simi- 
lar relations with regard to objects of attention. To 
experience exactly the same state of mind, we must 
exactly recall the past impressions in their original 



142 INFLUENCE OF HABIT ON MEMORY, 

order, or we must be placed again in precisely the 
same circumstances in regard to the brain and the 
senses. A case will illustrate this observation. It 
may be found at full in the " Assembly Missionary 
Magazine." The Reverend William Tennant, 
while conversing in Latin with his brother, fainted 
and apparently died. His friends were invited to 
his funeral; but his physician, examining the body, 
thought he perceived signs of life : he remained in 
this state of suspended animation for three days 
longer, when his family again assembled to the 
funeral, and, while they were all sitting around 
him, he gave a heavy groan, and was gradually re- 
stored. Some time after his resuscitation he ob- 
served his sister reading : he asked what she had 
in her hand. She answered " a Bible :" he re- 
plied, " what is a Bible V 9 He was found to be 
totally ignorant of every transaction of his past life. 
He was slowly taught again to read and write, and 
afterward began to learn Latin under the tuition 
of his brother. One day while he was reciting a 
lesson from " Cornelius Nepos," he suddenly felt a 
shock in his head. He could then speak the Latin 
fluently as before his illness, and his memory was in 
all respects completely restored. His brain was no 
longer so diseased or disordered in its circulation 
as to prevent his mind from returning to its former 
relations. Objects again excited their appropriate 
associations with recorded ideas, and he recollected 
what he previously knew ; his will was as capable 
of acting on his brain as it did when acquiring Latin 
at first — his nervous system was again obedient. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE CONNECTION OF MEMORY WITH DOUBLE 

CONSCIOUSNESS. 

Although memory is evinced in very different 
degrees, and under. various modifications in differ- 
ent individuals, we must not conclude that this en- 
dowment is essentially diversified in its nature and 
extent, as it appears to be. Many facts tend to 
prove that persons may possess large stores of re- 
corded impressions without being aware of it. 
Perhaps every image or idea received through the 
senses is really so preserved that, under circum- 
stances yet to come, they may each and every one 
be perceived and recognized in their proper con- 
nection with each other, so as to enable the cor- 
rected and unclouded reason hereafter to read the 
wisdom and providence of God as permanently 
written in the minutest circumstances of each one's 
experience, to discern distinctly the eternal contra- 
riety between truth and falsehood, good and evil ; 
to trace their operation on the mind, to perceive 
how the human will is rendered responsible by 
knowledge, and how hopes and efforts are excited 
by mental associations, and, consequently, how just 
and beautiful is the royal law of loving our neigh- 



144 THE CONNECTION OF MEMORY 

bor as ourselves. In short, we may hereafter be 
able to understand the force of circumstances in 
the development of character, the full weight of 
education and accountableness, and from the intelli- 
gence growing out of the feeling and reflection of 
the past, to converse without restraint with higher 
or more advanced intelligences, and to exercise 
our faculties aright in new and loftier regions where 
we shall learn that our living spirits have been ex- 
posed in this world of trial and darkness to nothing 
accidental, to nothing trivial ; but that other spirits 
have been permitted to be busy with our sensations 
and ideas for specific purposes of temptation, in 
just relation to our own moral state, for spiritual 
exaltation, or even, may we not say, for the more 
mysterious abandonment of the soul to evil ; there- 
by the better to exhibit the awful sublimity of di- 
vine government, which will ultimately subdue to 
the vengeance of love the most opposing elements, 
and render darkness itself the medium of glory. 

We know that persons may, during sleep and 
m certain conditions of disease, exercise a memory 
of which they are wholly unconscious in their 
waking hours, or while enjoying ordinary health ; 
in short, a memory which has no purpose in con- 
nection with present existence. 

There is an illustrative case related by Dr. Dyce, 
of Aberdeen. The patient was an ignorant servant 
girl, and the affection began with fits of sleepiness, 
which came suddenly upon her. After these 
paroxysms had been frequently renewed, she 
;egan to talk a great deal during their continuance, 
without being sensible of any thing that was passing 



WITH DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS. 145 

about her. In this state she on one occasion dis- 
tinctly repeated the baptismal service of the Church 
of England, and concluded with an extemporary- 
prayer. In her case a circumstance was remarked, 
which in other instances has also been observed, 
namely, that she perfectly recollected during the 
paroxysm what took place in former paroxysms, 
though she had no remembrance of it during the 
intervals. This is exactly what occurs in many 
cases of insanity and delirium. I have frequently 
conversed with persons under both forms of disor- 
der, during fits of excitement, and have found them 
perfectly at home concerning fancies and impres- 
sions which passed before their minds while con- 
versing with me in previous paroxysms ; but, in 
their lucid periods, their whole existence during 
the fits was quite a blank to them. 

Dr. Pritchard mentions a lady who was liable 
to sudden attacks of delirium. They often com- 
menced while she was engaged in interesting con- 
versation ; and on such occasions it happened that, 
on her recovery from the state of delirium, she in- 
stantly recurred to the conversation she was engag- 
ed in at the time of the attack. To such a degree 
was this carried on, that she could even complete 
an unfinished sentence. During one paroxysm she 
would pursue the train of ideas which had occu- 
pied her mind in a former fit. 

The human spirit uses the brain as long as this 
organ is fit for its purposes, md therefore conscious 
associated memory is the result of mental action 
on the brain ; and whenever the thinking principle 
is remembering and directed to the body and its 
10 N 



146 THE CONNECTION OF MEMORY 

senses, there is probably a reproduction of that 
very state of nerve or of brain which accompanied 
the first impression of each remembered idea ; and, 
probably, the brain being again put in the same 
condition, or nearly so, by any cause, as for instance 
by a stimulus, would facilitate the act of the mind 
in recalling any impression which had occurred in 
a similar state of brain ; because a return of this 
state is necessary while mind is acting with the 
senses. 

Dr. Abercrombie relates the following case, on 
the authority of a respectable clergyman of the 
Church of England, which aptly illustrates this 
point. A young woman of the lower rank, aged 
nineteen, became insane. She was gentle, and ap- 
plied herself eagerly to various operations. Before 
her insanity, she had learned to read and form a few 
letters, but during her insanity she taught herself 
to write perfectly, though all attempts to teach her 
had failed, as she could not attend. She had in- 
tervals of reason, which frequently continued for 
three weeks or longer, during which she could 
neither write nor read; but immediately on the 
return of her insanity, she recovered her power of 
writing and reading perfectly. 

Other cases might be related, on the best autho- 
rity, in which individuals have, during one state, 
retained all their original knowledge, but during 
the other state, that only which had been acquired 
after the first attack. The following history, ab- 
breviated from Dr. Abercrombie's statement, will 
further illustrate the fact that memory, as well as 
other faculties, may exist to a greater extent than 



WITH DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS. 147 

our ordinary use of recollection would warrant us 
to suppose. A girl, seven years of age, employed 
in tending cattle, was accustomed to sleep in an 
apartment next to one which was frequently occu- 
pied by an itinerant fiddler, who was a musician of 
considerable skill, and who often spent a part of 
the night in performing pieces of a refined descrip- 
tion. These performances were noticed by the 
child only as disagreeable noises. After residing 
in this house for six months she fell into bad 
health, and was removed by a benevolent lady to 
her own home ; where, on her recovery, she was 
employed as a servant. Some years after she 
came to reside with this lady, the wonder of the 
family was strongly excited by hearing the most 
beautiful music during the night, especially as they 
spent many waking hours in vain endeavors to dis- 
cover the invisible minstrel. At length the sound 
was traced to the sleeping room of the girl, who 
was fast asleep, but uttering from her lips sounds 
exactly resembling those of a small violin. On 
further observation it was found, that after being 
about two hours in bed she became restless, and 
began to mutter to herself; she then uttered tones 
precisely like the tuning of a violin, and at length, 
after some prelude, dashed off into elaborate pieces 
of music, which she performed in a clear and ac- 
curate manner, and with a sound not to be dis- 
tinguished from the most delicate modulations of 
that instrument. During the performance she 
sometimes stopped, imitated the re-tuhing her 
instrument, and then began exactly where she had 
stopped, in the most correct manner. These par- 



148 THE CONNECTION OF MEMORY 

oxysms occurred at irregular intervals, varying 
from one to fourteen, or even twenty nights ; and 
they were generally followed by a degree of fever. 
After a year or two her music was not confined to 
the imitation of the violin, but was often exchanged 
for that of a piano, which she was accustomed to 
hear in the house where she now lived; and she 
then also began to sing, imitating exactly the voices 
of several ladies of the family. In another year 
from this time she began to talk a great deal in 
her sleep, in which she seemed to fancy herself 
instructing a younger companion. She often des- 
canted with the utmost fluency and correctness on 
a great variety of topics, both political and religious ; 
the news of the day, the historical parts of Scripture, 
of public characters, of members of the family, and 
of their visitors. In these discussions she showed 
the most wonderful discrimination ; often combined 
with sarcasm, and astonishing powers of memory. 
Her language through the whole was fluent and 
correct, and her illustrations often forcible and 
even eloquent. She was fond of illustrating her 
subjects by what she called a fable, and in these 
her imagery was both appropriate and elegant. 
"She was by no means limited in her range — 
Buonaparte, Wellington, Blucher, and all the kings 
of the earth, figured among the phantasmagoria of 
her brain; and all were animadverted upon with 
such freedom from restraint, as often made me think 
poor Nancy had been transported into Madame 
Grenlis's Palace of Truth." She has been known 
to conjugate correctly Latin verbs, which she had 
probably heard in the school-room of the family, 



WITH DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS. 149 

and she was once heard to speak several sentences 
very correctly in French, and at the same time 
stating that she heard them from a foreign gentle- 
man. Being questioned on this subject when 
awake, she remembered having seen this gentle- 
man, but could not repeat a word of what he said. 
During her paroxysms it was almost impossible to 
awake her; and when her eyelids were raised, 
and a candle brought near her eye, the pupil 
seemed insensible to the light. 

During the whole period of this remarkable 
affection, which seems to have gone on for at least 
ten or eleven years, she was, when awake, a dull 
and awkward girl, very slow in receiving any in- 
struction, though much care was bestowed upon 
her; and, in point of intellect, she was much infe- 
rior to the other servants of the family. She show- 
ed no kind of turn for music, and had not any 
recollection of what passed during her sleep. 

We are not surprised to find that this singular 
and interesting girl afterward deviated from the 
path of virtue and became insane. The surprise 
is, that those persons who exhibited kindness to 
her in the early history of her life, should have 
abandoned her when disposed to self-abandonment. 
This is not the manner of a true Christian spirit, 
which exerts itself to counteract ignorance and de- 
lusion, and deems those most pitiable and most 
worthy of watchful care, who are farthest removed 
from the enjoyment of truth and purity. She had 
evidently labored under disease of the brain, es- 
pecially that part which is influenced by the higher 
intellectual faculties ; therefore the greater should 



150 THE CONNECTION OP MEMORY 

have been the care of her friends to protect her 
from the persuasions of sensual temptation, which 
always becomes mighty in proportion to the de- 
velopment of the animal propensities, unless con- 
trolled by motives derived from superior knowledge 
and expectations. 

Double consciousness is curiously tested in the 
case of a person who can not preserve attention 
to his body, or to things around him, in conse- 
quence of being overpowered by fatigue. He 
sits, we will suppose, in some uneasy position, 
not allowing him to resign himself to sleep, but 
keeping him in a state of alternation between im- 
perfect sleeping and waking; so that he is con- 
stantly correcting the aberrations of consciousness 
that occur in the mind, when the will ceases to act 
on the senses, by the returning consciousness of 
his situation when slightly roused. Here the in- 
dividual recognizes the double mode of his exist- 
ence, and in the course of a few minutes passes 
several times from the one state to the other, 
dreaming one instant and reasoning the next. 
However the fact may be explained, he is con- 
scious of transition and loses not the sense of his 
identity, although the memory associated with the 
exercise of the senses is distinctly seen to differ 
from that which exists during their suspense ; for, 
in reality, the perceptions of the difference be- 
tween the objects of the memory in the dreaming 
and in the wakeful conditions, constitutes all by 
which the mind knows the difference between 
sleep and vigilance. 

When the exercise of memory is disordered, as, 



WITH DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS. 151 

for instance, by disease of the brain, it is often 
difficult for the patient to awake to a conscious- 
ness of realities ; and he is apt, as in cases of in- 
sanity, to blend the memory of dreams with the 
impressions of objects on his senses; or even, 
while apparently gazing at a real scene, to be 
attending only to an imaginary or remembered 
one. This state was exemplified in the case of an 
aged gentleman, whose remarkable affection was 
lately the subject of public inquiry, and who, 
while looking out of a window on a wide prospect 
in England, described it to his housekeeper as a 
scene in Barbadoes, where he had an estate, and 
the different parts of that estate he pointed out 
very minutely. This individual suffered from dis- 
ease which often rendered him incapable of com- 
paring ideas with present impressions, or dreaming 
with wakefulness, and of course rendered his mem- 
ory almost as uncertain when awake as when in a 
dream. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

FURTHER FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS IN PROOF OF THE 
IMMATERIAL NATURE OF MEMORY. 

We daily experience the recurrence of past im- 
pressions to be entirely independent on the will, 
and we are often surprised at the distinctness with 
which scenes that had long been lost in oblivion 
suddenly reappear without the possibility of our 
detecting the cause of their revival. That such 
resurrections of thought and impression result from 
some constant law of our existence, there can not 
be a doubt; but that the recognized influence of 
association is insufficient for the purpose of ex- 
plaining the fact, we possess abundant proof, in 
those examples of renewed recollection or its loss, 
which are so common in consequence of disease. 
Sir Astley Cooper relates the case of a sailor who 
was received into St. Thomas's Hospital, in a 
state of stupor, from an injury in the head, which 
had continued some months. After an operation 
he suddenly recovered, so far as to speak, but no 
one in the hospital understood his language. But 
a Welsh milk- woman, happening to come into the 
ward, answered him, for he spoke Welsh, which 
was his native language. He had, however, been 



IMMATERIAL NATURE OF MEMORY. 153 

absent from Wales more than thirty years, and 
previous to the accident had entirely forgotten 
Welsh, although he now spoke it fluently, and 
recollected not a single word of any other tongue. 
On his perfect recovery, he again completely forgot 
his Welsh, and recovered his English. 

An Italian gentleman, mentioned by Dr. Rush, 
in the beginning of an illness spoke English; in 
the middle of it, French ; but, on the day of his 
death, spoke only Italian. A Lutheran clergy- 
man, of Philadelphia, informed Dr. Rush that 
Germans and Swedes, of whom he had a large 
number in his congregation, when near death, 
always prayed in their native languages, though 
some of them, he was confident, had not spoken 
them for fifty or sixty years. An ignorant servant 
girl, mentioned by Coleridge, during the delirium 
of fever, repeated, with perfect correctness, pass- 
ages from a number of theological works in Latin, 
Greek, and Rabbinical Hebrew. It was at length 
discovered that she had been servant to a learned 
clergyman, who was in the habit of walking back- 
ward and forward along a passage by the kitchen, 
and there reading aloud his favorite authors. 

Dr. Abercrombie relates the case of a child, 
four years of age, who underwent the operation of 
trepanning while in a state of profound stupor 
from a fracture of the skull. After his recovery, 
he retained no recollection either of the operation 
or the accident ; yet, at the age of fifteen, during 
the delirium of a fever, he gave his mother an 
exact description of the operation, of the persons 
present, their dress, and many other minute par- 



154 IMMATERIAL NATURE OF MEMORY. 

ticulars. Dr. Pritchard mentions a man who had 
been employed with a beetle and wedges, splitting 
wood. At night he put these implements in the 
hollow of an old tree, and directed his sons to ac- 
company him the next morning in making a fence. 
In the night, however, he became mad. After 
several years his reason suddenly returned, and 
the first question he asked was, whether his sons 
had brought home the beetle and wedges. They, 
being afraid to enter into an explanation, said they 
could not find them ; on which he arose, went to 
the field where he had been to work so many 
years before, and found, in the place where he 
had left them, the wedges and the iron rings of 
the beetle, the wooden part having moldered 
away. 

It is a remarkable fact that, in many instances, 
disorder of faculty, more particularly of memory, 
having resulted from extensive organic disease of 
the brain, yet individuals so afflicted have, never- 
theless, had lucid intervals and a perfect restoration 
of memory. This has been so marked, in some 
cases, as to have induced the hope of recovery 
when death has been near at hand, and has even 
rapidly ensued, from the increase of the very dis- 
ease which led to the mental incapacity. Mr. 
Marshall relates, that a man died with a pound of 
water in his brain, who, just before death, became 
perfectly rational, although he had been long in a 
state of idiocy. Dr. Holland refers to similar cases, 
and I have witnessed one. Now, unless we con- 
clude that mind has been re-created on such occa- 
sions, in accommodation to the organic defects, we 



IMMATERIAL NATURE OF MEMORY. 155 

must conclude that the mind exists in its integrity, 
when once formed, distinct as the light of heaven ; 
though, like it, subject to eclipse and cloud in its 
earthly manifestations. 

Many such cases might be adduced, but the 
foregoing facts suffice to prove that, though a 
healthy condition of the brain is essential to the 
proper manifestation of mind in this state of being, 
or in keeping with the use of the senses, yet that 
a history of events lies hidden in the soul, which 
only requires suitable excitement and appropriate 
circumstances to cause it to be unfolded to the 
eye of the mind, in due order, like a written roll. 
And, moreover, these facts indicate that our bodies 
and our minds are mercifully constituted, in mutual 
fitness and accommodation to each other and the 
world we dwell in. They also show that the 
active employment of the will, and bodily health 
with diversified bodily engagements, are the best 
means of correcting that tendency to mental ab- 
sence which precedes and accompanies insanity. 
Moreover, these cases, as well as many others 
equally well authenticated, " furnish proofs and 
instances that relics of sensation may exist for an 
indefinite time in a latent state, in the very same 
order in which they were originally impressed.' " 
Indeed, activity and intensity of all mental power 
seems to depend on the removal of bodily impedi- 
ment. At least we see that certain states of body 
allow the mind to act, without the consciousness 
of difficulty or effort. Thus Dr. Willis relates the 
case of a gentleman, who expected his fits of in- 



156 IMMATERIAL NATURE OP MEMORY. 

sanity with impatience, because of the facility with 
which he then exercised his memory and imagina- 
tion. He said, " every thing appeared easy to me. 
No obstacles presented themselves, either in theory 
or practice. My memory acquired, all of a sud- 
den, a singular degree of perfection. Long pass- 
ages of Latin authors occurred to my mind. In 
general, I have great difficulty in finding rythmical 
terminations ; but then I could write verses with as 
great facility as prose." I knew a clergyman, of 
fine intellect, who was remarkable for fits of hesi- 
tancy in preaching; but who, in his dreams, was 
accustomed to express himself with intense and 
most fluent eloquence. Dr. Haycock, professor 
of medicine, in Oxford, would give out a text, and 
deliver a good sermon on it, in his sleep, but was 
incapable of such discourse when awake. A wri- 
ter in Frazer's Magazine mentions a lady who 
performed every part of the Presbyterian service 
in her sleep. Some of her sermons were pub- 
lished. They consist principally of texts of Scrip- 
ture appropriately strung together. 

In the Edinburgh Journal of Science, a lady is 
described as being subject to disease, during which 
she repeated great quantities of poetry in her sleep, 
and even capped verses for half an hour at a time, 
never failing to quote lines beginning with the 
final letter of the preceeding, till her memory, or 
rather her brain, was exhausted. 

We can not rationally suppose that the peculiar 
states of the brain, under which memory has thus 
recurred, acted in any other way than either as a 



IMMATERIAL NATURE OF MEMORY. 157 

stimulus or medium of action to something always 
ready to act. These facts, therefore, contribute 
to make it probafcle that all thoughts are in them- 
selves imperishable ; " 4 yea, in the very nature of 
a living spirit, it may be more possible that heaven 
and earth should pass away than that a single 
thought should be loosened or lost from that living 
chain of causes, to all whose links, conscious or 
unconscious, the free will, — our only absolute 
itself, — is co-extensive and co-present. " # 

How awful is the conviction, that the book of 
judgment is that of our life, in which every idle 
word is recorded ; and that no power but His who 
made the soul can obliterate our ideas and our 
deeds from our remembrance, or blot out trans- 
gressions and purify our spirits from the actual in- 
dwelling of evil thoughts ! 

Every individual experience amply testifies that 
the forgotten incidents of long-past years require 
only the touch of the kindling spirit to start up, in 
all their pristine freshness, before us. How often 
do we remember having recognized in our dreams 
those feelings and circumstances which had been 
lost to our waking consciousness, in the accumu- 
lated events which passing time had impressed 
upon our minds ! And although we can not say 
that we acknowledge, as belonging to our own 
actual experience, all the visionary combinations 
which are thus presented to our notice in dreams, 
we yet feel that every object in them is familiar to 
our knowledge. Some persons, as we have said, 
* Coleridge. 

o 



158 IMMATERIAL NATURE OF MEMORY. 

on the near approach of death have spoken of the 
incidents of their lives as being simultaneously pre- 
sented before them as if in a magic mirror, every 
line as if fixed upon a tablet by the light, exactly 
as that revealing light fell on it. The portrait of 
the soul is the perfect reflection of itself, and every 
man must see his own character thus for ever visi- 
ble to the eye of God, and, probably, hereafter to 
angels and to men. 

The present consciousness of life is but a condi- 
tion of mind, and our enjoyments are but expres- 
sions of the state of our wills ; therefore a change 
of state makes no alteration in our characters, but 
serves only to exhibit them in new aspects. Thus 
variety of circumstances tests the stability of our 
moral principles ; but these can be modified only 
by the relation in which the soul stands with regard 
to God, the source of moral law ; for death is but 
a change of state, not of moral character. 

In connection with this subject it is interesting to 
remember that immediately preceding death the 
mind is commonly occupied about those things with 
which it has been most intimate during health. 
Thus Napoleon's last words words were " Head" 
— " Army." Those of a celebrated judge were 
" Gentlemen of the jury, you are discharged." 
Cardinal Beaufort cried, "What, no bribing 
death!" 

Reason and revelation agree, then, in asserting, 
that absolute forgetfulness, or obliteration, is im- 
possible ; and that all the events of our history are 
written in our living spirits ; and, whether seen or 



IMMATERIAL NATURE OF MEMORY. 159 

unseen, will there remain forever, unless removed 
by the act of a merciful Omnipotence ! It is true, 
that a thousand incidents will spread a veil between 
our present consciousness and the record on the 
soul, but there the record rests waiting the judg- 
ment of God. These sublime facts deeply warn 
us as to the manner in which we suffer our facul- 
ties to be engaged, not only as their exercise affects 
ourselves, but also in their influence on the destiny 
of others. 

Viewing the subject, then, both physiologically 
and metaphysically, we must infer that memory has 
relation to another mode of existence ; and that 
though, as regards this sphere of being, recollection 
is greatly influenced by the will, yet that much lies 
stored in latency, which can only be called into ex- 
ercise under coming circumstances, when the will 
shall be more largely endowed, in a manner corre- 
sponding with its new relations, and thus be ena- 
bled to connect new facts with past impressions. 
The reasoning and undisturbed spirit shall then un- 
derstand the meaning of all associated knowledge, 
and memory shall preserve within us a conscious- 
ness of all we have experienced through this life, 
and add it to that which is to come. Memory, in- 
deed, seems intended to qualify us to treasure im- 
pressions in all worlds, and to carry on the record 
and history of our feelings from time to eternity. 
But if the experience of earth is to be our all, then 
memory is without a sufficient purpose. Is death 
indeed to end the scene in perpetual oblivion ? Is 
knowledge itself, though the result of a laborious 



160 IMMATERIAL NATURE OF MEMORY. 

life of attention and of effort, to close forever, like 
a beautiful symphony, significant of richer harmony 
to come, but yet terminating, we know not why, in 
abrupt and eternal silence % Is the stream to be 
lost, not in ocean, but in nothing ! No. The ever- 
lasting future grows upon the past ; remembrance 
is the basis of eternal knowledge. In fact, the full 
purpose of any one of our intellectual endowments 
does not appear to be fulfilled in the limited and 
broken exercise which is afforded to it in the pres- 
ent stage of being, since the utmost advantage we 
derive from the employment of our faculties now 
is to become religious, that is, to be re-bound to the 
worship and enjoyment of God. Can it be that this 
re-binding of the prodigal soul to the Eternal Father 
is only for deatK, like the victim bound to the altar, 
to be sacrificed and consumed to ashes, from which 
no Phoenix-life arises ] 

Our best ratiocination, under the stimulus of 
the highest and purest affections, is only an ability 
to reason from things past to things future, and 
from experience to analogy ; thence obtaining the 
promise, the desire, the assurance of enlarged 
capacity for understanding and blessedness ; since 
hope and doubt, in equal balance, are otherwise 
the only ends of our utmost knowledge here. 
But expectation and inquiry are purposeless, if 
there be not a futurity in the mind of God for us, 
which shall illuminate the chaos and satisfy the 
trustful soul. Can it be that our Maker has given 
us a life so rich in promise and excitation merely 
to terminate in a question that must receive no 



IMMATERIAL NATURE OF MEMORY. 161 

answer. Is it not most consonant with simple 
reason, as well as with revelation (which is God's 
response to reason), to believe that our holy desires 
are properly directed forward to coming events 
for their fruition ; and that /what we know, or 
think we know, now, is intended only to excite 
our longing for the larger knowledge reserved for 
hereafter. God is not the God of the dead, but 
of the living; for all who live for Him live in 
Him — the life itself; and what we taste of life in 
this world is but the covenant and agreement of 
God with our spirits, — a covenant that can not be 
broken. 

As we can not believe that Omnipotence ever 
created even an atom of matter and afterward an- 
nihilated it, so we can not believe that mind and 
spirit, created in his own likeness, capable of 
communion with Himself, and so far partaking of 
his own nature, should ever perish. Every im- 
pression, every idea, every sensation has a place 
in the individuality of every soul's experience, and 
is appropriate and necessary to the growth and 
edification of that soul, and can not be destroyed 
without the undoing of the work which Divine 
Wisdom and power have accomplished ; so that to 
suppose a human being annihilated, or any part 
of his experience forever blotted out, is to imagine 
providence without a purpose, and omniscient 
wisdom without an object or an end worthy of 
human creation. And are not the facts we have 
related concerning attention and memory in per- 
fect agreement with this conclusion of our reason ? 
11 o* 



162 IMMATERIAL NATURE OF MEMORY. 

Here, then, let us pause and ponder on the wonders 
of our mental and moral being, and the vastness 
of our destiny as the offspring of the Everlasting 
Father. 



PART II. 



THE INFLUENCE OF MENTAL DETERMINATION AND 
EMOTION OVER THE BODY. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE POSITIVE ACTION OF THE MIND ON THE BODY, 
ASSERTED AND EXEMPLIFIED IN THE EFFECTS OF 
EXCESSIVE ATTENTION. 

Physiology teaches us, by a multitude of facts, 
that every atom of the animal structure is sub- 
jected to perpetual change ; and that every motion, 
every action of the body, is the consequence of 
alteration in the vital condition of one or more of 
its parts, ^ot a thought, not an idea, not an 
affection or feeling of the mind can be excited 
without positive change in the brain and in the 
secretions ; for every variation in the state of the 
whole, or any portion, of the nervous system, is of 
course accompanied by a correspondent change in 
those organs and functions which it furnishes with 
energy. "^ 

The body can be influenced only by four kinds 
of force, — chemical, mechanical, vital, and mental. 
Health and enjoyment may be destroyed mechani- 



164 ACTION OF MIND ON BODY 

cally, as by a blow. Any thing which acts chemi- 
cally may also injure the body, . as fire. No ar- 
guments can be required to show that the life of 
the body is maintained in spite of a constant ten- 
dency to death ; that is, the resident life is inces- 
santly counteracting the common chemical and 
mechanical influences which are around it. De- 
composition and decay commence the moment 
life leaves the body. So then life appears to be a 
distinct power. But what is it 1 We know not. 
It is neither tangible nor visible. It can not be 
weighed nor tested. Like the soul, it is discover- 
able only by its effects on chemical and mechan- 
ical agents. It is not the production of the body, 
for without it the body itself could not have com- 
menced. It operates on one body, through another, 
so as to produce a third. It is something capable 
of being communicated, and is probably~independ- 
ent on organization, at least some fluids are im- 
bued with it. The purpose of vitality, as regards 
man, is to bring inert matter into such relations 
to the mind as that the mind may be developed 
through it, by making physical organization sub- 
servient to consciousness and volition. Life is the 
source of the body's growth, preservation, and 
reproduction. It exhibits itself in modifying the 
action of external influences, and by the evolution 
of new forms under the power of impregnation. 
But the mind acts as clearly and distinctly on the 
body as either chemical, mechanical, or vital agen- 
cy ; therefore the mind must possess a distinct ex- 
istence, action, and force, capable of being super- 
added to life as life is to matter. Mind, in fact, 



ASSERTED AND EXEMPLIFIED. 165 

is the mightiest power we know, and perhaps, 
properly speaking, the only power. Chemical ac- 
tion is but relative, and the result of some power 
constantly ready to act on matter according to cir- 
cumstances. Sulphuric acid and potash combine 
when brought into contact under ordinary circum- 
stances, because something produces a reciprocal 
change in their particles when within a certain 
distance of each other ; but this change is prevent- 
ed altogether by causing a galvanic current to in- 
fluence these bodies, and sulphuric acid may thus 
be passed through a solution of potash without 
their combining. We see, then, that chemical ac- 
tion is dependent on electrical action, and elec- 
trical action is dependent on some superior power ; 
the same, it may be, as that which causes gravita- 
tion, magnetism, polarity, heat, light, and which 
pervades all elements ; a power which can not be 
called material, and which obeys only that will 
which evoked the universe and still sustains it. 
In short, all power may be traced up directly to 
the mind that created and manages all things. 

This view of the action of matter may easily be 
earned on to a comparison with that of mind ; for 
we at once perceive the reasonableness of conclud- 
ing that created mind, as well as matter, may exist 
in a quiescent state until brought into relation with 
certain arrangements and conditions of matter, or 
with other minds, according to affinities and laws 
which operate only under the direct influence of 
some superior, all-pervading power. Such a notion 
is consistent with the facts within our knowledge, 
and brings us at once to the necessity of acknowl- 



166 ACTION OF MIND ON BODY 

edging our total dependence, for all the purposes 
of our being, on the will that wisely and benevo- 
lently determines how and when we shall feel, so 
that under one set of circumstances we shall be un- 
conscious, and under another be thoroughly kindled 
with emotion. 

We have already observed the power of the will 
in directing and enforcing the motions of the mus- 
cles, but if we further reflect on the various ways 
in which will operates, we shall not fail to be struck 
with the vast extent of its influences, not only over 
the muscles, but also over the source of bodily life 
itself, for its exercise modifies the action both of the 
brain and the heart — taking possession, so to speak, 
of the fountains of energy, and regulating in some 
measure the supply of blood and life to different 
parts of the body. This is said not merely of the 
ordinary power of emotion, but of voluntary em- 
ployment of the body ; not of sudden impulse, but 
of steady purpose, such as the determined student 
or the artist evinces in his patient labor with the 
book, the pen, the pencil, or the graver. 

We will confine our observation for a moment to 
the more mechanical work of the engraver as an 
example of simple attention. He sits with his eye 
and mind intent upon the fine lines of his copper or 
steel plate; and, as he looks more earnestly he 
holds his breath; and as his attention strengthens 
in its fixedness, his breathing becomes audible and 
irregular. Now and then he is forced to sigh to re- 
lieve his burdened and excited heart ; for the blood 
is retarded in the lungs and brain, and if they be 
not soon relieved by some change of object or of 



ASSERTED AND EXEMPLIFIED. 167 

action he turns faint and dizzy. Being wrought up 
to the same intensity day after day, he comes at 
length upon the extreme verge of danger. The 
right ventricle of the heart becomes oppressed in 
consequence of imperfect action of the lungs, while 
the general circulation is quickened, and thus dila- 
tation of the heart soon follows, with disordered 
liver and accumulation of black blood in the abdo- 
men, bringing on a long train of morbid sensations, 
with „ constant dread of coming death. Moderate, 
but frequent exercise in the open air, with cheerful 
society, as it would have prevented this miserable 
condition, will also still relieve it ; but if this duty 
be neglected the evil rapidly increases. The pa- 
tient's heart palpitates excessively when either the 
mind or the body is hurried; he is " tremblingly 
alive' ' in every limb, and his nervous system com- 
pletely fails him. Pallid, weak, timid, and tremu- 
lous, he is apt to become too sensitive to endure 
the anxieties of domestic duty ; and, if he be not 
sustained by high religious or moral principles, he 
seeks a respite from his wretchedness in the sooth- 
ing, yet aggravating narcotism of opium or tobacco, 
or in the insidious excitement of some fermented 
liquor; and thus gradually casts himself out from 
all happy and natural associations, and ends his 
days either as a hypocondriac, a madman, or a 
drunkard. This is not an exaggerated, but alas ! 
a common picture. The evil is aggravated in these 
cases by the state of the mind and that of the body 
being equally irritable, they act and react on each 
other, and the passions of the one, as well as the 
functions of the other, become so disordered that 



168 ACTION OF MIND ON BODY 

perfect sleep can not be obtained, and the persistent 
exhaustion produces a chronic fever, for which rest, 
the only remedy, is sought in vain, except in the 
grave. 

The failure of the nervous system, and the fear- 
ful recourse to narcotics and stimulants for its re- 
lief, are often witnessed where the tyranny of Mam- 
mon exacts too long an attention to the mechanical 
and anxious business of art. Its results are still 
visible in a frightful degree among the operatives 
of our great manufactories, where the eye must be 
quick, and the hand ever ready for one monotonous 
action, hour after hour and day after day, with the 
mathematical precision and rapidity of machinery, 
even through all that period of life when nature 
most demands a cheerful diversity of object and 
action. 

But the commercial Moloch demands the perpet- 
ual sacrifice of almost the whole bodily and mental 
being of those who are providentially so poor as to 
have nothing to sell but themselves. The millions 
sterling which their labors have won from many 
lands belong to those who employ them ; how then 
shall they be protected % Ceaseless toil is their pro- 
tection, say some, because it preserves their morals ! 
This subject, however, is too large for these pages. 
The great fact which we would observe, is, the 
power of his will over the body, for a man dies 
from voluntary fatigue, in the determination to em- 
ploy his muscles. Whether he thus exhausts his 
vital energy in duty or for the indulgence of his ap- 
petites, he still demonstrates the dominance of his 
will, since he undergoes the extremity of toil to 



ASSERTED AND EXEMPLIFIED. 169 

answer his own purpose, under whatever circum- 
stances he may be constrained to exert himself. 
I The will, then, is the master principle, even in a 1 
I slave, and therefore its moral state must determine 
| every man's moral destiny. 



CHAPTER II. 

INJUDICIOUS EDUCATION. 

If the nervous system allowed the mind to at- 
tend, reason would appear in its power as much at 
six years of age as at sixty. The child does reason 
then, and that correctly, to the extent of its knowl- 
edge; and is as capable of enjoying intellectual 
truth as in maturer years, provided the faculties be 
cultivated in an appropriate manner. Perhaps the 
most beautiful instance of such premature enjoy- 
ment is that furnished by Washington Irving, in his 
memoir of Margaret Davidson, a child, of whom it 
is stated that, when only in her sixth year, her lan- 
guage was elevated, and her mind so filled with 
poetic imagery and religious thought, that she read 
with enthusiasm and elegance Thomson's Seasons, 
The Pleasures of Hope, Cowper's Task, and the 
writings of Milton, Byron, and Scott. The sacred 
writings were her daily study ; and notwithstand- 
ing her poetic temperament, she had a high relish 
for history, and read with as much interest an ab- 
struse treatise, that called forth the reflective pow- 
ers, as she did poetry or works of imagination. 
Her physical frame was delicately constituted to 
receive impressions, and her mother was capable 



INJUDICIOUS EDUCATION. 171 

of observing and improving the opportunity afford- 
ed to instruct her. Nothing was learned by rote, 
and every object of her thought was discussed in 
conversation with a mind sympathizing with her 
own. Such a course, however, while it demon- 
strates the power of the mind, proves also that such 
premature employment of it is inconsistent with the 
physiology of the body ; for while the spirit revel- 
ed in the ecstasies of intellectual excitement, the 
vital functions of the physical frame-work were 
fatally disturbed. She read, she wrote, she danced, 
she sung, and was the happiest of the happy ; but, 
while the soul thus triumphed, the body became 
more and more delicate, and speedily failed alto- 
gether under the successive transports. 

The brain of a child, however forward, is totally 
unfit for that intellectual exertion to which many 
fond parents either force or excite it. Fatal dis- 
ease is thus frequently induced ; and where death 
does not follow, idiocy, or at least such confusion 
of faculty ensues, that the moral perception is ob- 
scured, and the sensative child becomes a man of 
hardened vice, or of insane self-will. Many ex- 
amples of this may be found, particularly among 
the rigid observers of formal imitations of religion 
and the refined ceremonies of high civilization. 
There are numerous manuals to lead the infant 
mind from nature up to nature's God, as if it were 
in the nature of childhood to need manuals and 
catechisms of Botany, Geometry, and Astronomy 
to teach them the goodness of the Creator and the 
Savior. Fathers and mothers rather need manu- 
als to teach them how to treat their children, see- 



172 INJUDICIOUS EDUCATION. 

ing that nearly half of those brought forth die In 
infancy, and the majority of the survivors are mor- 
bid, both in mind and body. It is the parental 
character, in wisdom and love-watching, to bring 
the child into sympathy with true knowledge and 
affection, that represents and imitates the Divine 
Mind, as commended to our study by His acts. 
Even the persuasives of religious discipline, in- 
stead of falling like the gentle dew from heaven, 
are too frequently made hard, and dry, and harsh, 
as if the Gospel were the invention of a mathe- 
matical tyrant, to fashion souls by geometric rules, 
and not the expression of the mind of love, in- 
spiring by example. The contrast, in personal 
appearance and manner, between a child trained 
under the winning management of a wise, firm, 
commanding love, and another subjected to the 
despotic control of fear, is very striking. In the 
former, we observe a sprightly eye and open coun- 
tenance, with a genial vivacity and trustfulness in 
the general expression of the body ; a mixture of 
confiding sociality with intelligence, an alacrity of 
movement, and a healthiness of soul, evinced in 
generous activity and smiles. Even if the body 
be enfeebled, still a certain bright halo surrounds, 
as it were, the mental constitution. But physical, 
as well as intellectual vigor and enjoyment, are 
usually the happy result of that freedom of heart 
and generosity of spirit, which skillful affection 
endeavors to encourage. Then, in youth and 
manhood, a noble intelligence confirming the pro- 
priety of such early training; but the child who 
finds a tyrant instead of a fostering parent, if 



INJUDICIOUS EDUCATION. 173 

naturally delicate, acquires a timid bearing, a 
languid gait, a sallow cheek, a pouting lip, a 
stupid torpidity, or a sullen defiance ; for nature's 
defense from tyranny is either hard stupidity or 
cunning daring. 

In this country the feeble slave too often skulks 
through life a cowering and cowardly hypocrite ; 
defending himself from the craft and violence of 
others' selfishness by every meanness, and seeking 
his enjoyment by the sly, as if he feared to be 
found susceptible of pleasure. His character is 
engraven on his face. The child of robust frame 
will, however, learn to face the tyrant, and, acquir- 
ing his worse features, at length be fit only to 
associate with ruffians, or to drive slaves. 

Children are not formed for monotony and fix- 
edness : their nervous systems will not bear it with 
impunity, and even their very bones are intolerant 
of the erect position for any length of time. They 
are made to be restless and active, and are not 
healthy if forced to be otherwise. The system of 
excessive restraint is therefore unchristian, because 
it is unnatural ; for Christianity is not opposed to 
nature ; it is not a violence, but a superior influ- 
ence in correspondence with an inferior. It is a 
spirit that subdues by possessing the will, and 
which educates by inducing and fostering the 
sweet sympathies of religious love, — like the gen- 
tle dew, and the light and warmth of heaven, 
evolving the living seed. The government of fear 
and force is the plan of every imaginable hell, 
where each evil begets a greater, and terror and 
hatred torment each other. If, then, we would 



174 INJUDICIOUS EDUCATION. 

know how to manage a little child, let us imagine 
how Jesus would have treated it. Would he not 
have engaged its happiest feelings and affections, 
won its heart, and blessed it ? While sitting on 
his knee, would not the child have gazed into that 
"human face divine," and learned the gentleness 
and power of its Heavenly Father % Let it not be 
forgotten that the Savior said, " whoso shall receive 
one such little child in my name, receiveth me : 
but whoso shall offend one of these little ones that 
belie veth in me, it were better that a mill-stone 
were hanged about his neck and he drowned in 
the depth of the sea." If the words from which 
we obtain the notion do not deceive us, superior 
and holy beings are concerned about our offspring, 
and each child has its guardian angel, who be- 
holds the face of God. How would that angel, 
if conversing with it, in visible beauty, talk to the 
child, and kindle its affections % Surely by show- 
ing the might of graciousness with sublime sim- 
plicity ; like that of the disciple whom Jesus loved, 
when he said, " little children love one another." 
That angel would be more successful in his teach- 
ing only, because he would be more accommo- 
dating to the body, more earnest, more gentle, 
more attractive, and more sympathizing. He 
would have no greater truths to inculcate than 
we have, but knowing more clearly than we do 
the delicacy of our mysterious constitution, and the 
worth of a soul, with its intellect and affections 
formed for eternity, he would act more gently and 
cautiously with its bodily temperament. Let us 
imitate the loving angel — the loving Savior — the 



INJUDICIOUS EDUCATION. 175 

loving God — in kindness toward little children, 
and show them nothing but love ; since they will 
respond to that spirit, but be repulsed into sin and 
agony by every other. 

Piety itself is not unfrequently rendered terrible 
by a perverted application of memory, to descrip- 
tions in which Omnipotence is associated with the 
final judgment and the terrors of guilt. Many a 
little child, whose susceptible heart is as ready to 
yield to the gentlest breath of affection as the 
aspen-leaf to the zephyr, and whose spirit sparkles 
with love as readily as a dew-drop with the light, 
acquires the habit of terror, and scarcely dares to 
look up because he is taught as soon as he can 
speak to repeat — 

" There's not a sin that we commit, 

Nor wicked word we say, 
But in the dreadful book 'tis writ, 

Against the judgment day." 

And the thoughtless and fond parent too frequently 
makes that appear to be wickedness and sin which, 
however proper to childhood, is inconvenient to 
those who should tenderly train it. Surely that 
is a dangerous expedient for the correction of a 
child, conscious of having offended the only being 
he has learned to love, and while perhaps in agony 
of heart begging pardon from a mother, to be told 
to remember 

" There is a dreadful hell 
And everlasting pains, 
Where sinners must forever dwell 
In darkness, fire, and chains — 
" And can a wretch as I 

Escape this cursed end," &c. ? 

Divine Songs for Children. 



176 INJUDICIOUS EDUCATION. 

There is reason to believe that insane despondency 
and a disposition to suicide, may often be traced 
to abuse of religious discipline, if religious it may 
be called, especially that form of it just alluded 
to. Thus the impression of despair is apt to be 
burned into the very brain, to " grow with its 
growth, and strengthen with its strength ;" so 
that in after-life the divine remedy scarcely effaces 
the callous scar, or else the youth thus ill-treated 
in his childhood, endeavors to escape from the 
haunting terror by persuading himself that re- 
ligion is invented only to keep wretches in order. 
Hence the glowing and glorious words of the liv- 
ing oracle — " There is joy among the angels in the 
presence of God over one sinner that repenteth" 
— is regarded only as an exquisite hyperbole. It 
falls dead upon the ear, as if it could not be, as it 
is, quickening truth from the lips of Him who is 
the Life. 

There is another abuse here demanding remark. 
No treatment can be more injudicious and inju- 
rious than that often resorted to, even in schools 
of high character, namely, the exertion of mem- 
ory, not for the sake of acquiring and retaining a 
knowledge of facts, which must always be useful, 
but merely to punish some dereliction. What 
good can arise from thus fatiguing the brain, by 
excessively straining that faculty, in the happy and 
spontaneous associations of which all the value of 
every acquirement consists ] No plan is more 
likely to disable the mind and impair the body, 
as the servant of mind; for by this practice the 
idea of fixing the attention on words becomes 



INJUDICIOUS EDUCATION. 177 

peculiarly irksome. The very countenance of a 
boy thus distressed is apt to assume an ex- 
pression of vacancy or irritability, and every func- 
tion of his life to indicate the mischief arising 
from a debilitated brain under disorderly asso- 
ciations. 

As the emulative success of classical education 
is generally dependent on an excessive determina- 
tion of mind, for the purpose of rapidly loading 
the memory, it is of course attended for the most 
part with a correspondent risk to the nervous sys- 
tem of aspirants after academic honors. Men- 
tally speaking, those who bear the palm in severe 
universities rarely survive the effort necessary to 
secure the distinction. Like phosphorescent in- 
sects their brilliance lasts but a little while, and is 
at its height when on the point of being extin- 
guished forever. The laurel crown is commonly 
for the dead ; if not corporeally, yet spiritually ; 
and those who attain the highest honors of their 
AlmcB Matres are generally diseased men. Having 
reached the object of their aim, by concentrating 
their energies in one object, an intellectual palsy 
too often succeeds, and their bodies partake of the 
trembling feebleness. If their ambition survive, 
and instead of slumbering away a dreamy exist- 
ence in some retired nook, they occupy promi- 
nent stations in public life, disease of the brain, 
heart, or lungs soon quenches their glory, and they 
fade away. The impression of undue determina- 
tion remains upon the brain, which continues sub- 
servient to the ambitious will until its structure 
and its functions fail together. The early effort 
12 



178 INJUDICIOUS EDUCATION. 

opened a fountain of energy abruptly. It can not 
be perennial; the waste is more rapid than the 
supply ; and, like water bursting from its channel, 
it must run to waste, until violence ends in ex- 
haustion. It happens, too, that those sanguine 
spirits, who acquire knowledge with facility, and 
scatter it in wit, are rather the despisers of solid 
diligence; and therefore the great readers are 
mostly heavy-brained men, who make up in dog- 
ged determination and perseverance for lack of 
readiness in acquiring. With patience, equal to 
their ambition, they plod on for the prize. If 
they win it, their deadly passion is confirmed ; if 
they lose it, again they roll the stone against the 
hill and it returns to crush them. Yet who would 
depreciate mental effort 1 The memory must be 
trained, the soul must be determined to conquer 
its impediments, the moral being will, starve with- 
out a store of facts, the faculty of recollecting and 
arranging must be powerfully and regularly em- 
ployed, or the mind becomes a desultory vagrant. 
Without mental exertion in acquiring habits of 
thought, youth would pass into manhood with the 
medley intellect and ungovernable nervous system 
of the savage, with all the corresponding dis- 
orderly habits of bodily action. Education distin- 
guishes the energetic citizen from the fitful barba- 
rian ; the man who governs his body from the man 
who obeys it ; the man of principles from the man 
of impulses. But we ought not to forget that true 
healthy education consists in the motives which 
naturally and quietly educe or lead out the mind 
to think for itself, in sympathy with those who 



INJUDICIOUS EDUCATION. 179 

have thought, not in the routine of school-tasks 
and verbal drudgery. 

Intellectually speaking, man is not gregarious, 
but every mind has a track of its own as well as 
a body of its own ; therefore, those who have felt 
the value of mental culture, and have taken their 
course untrammeled by task- work, have generally 
shown their intellectual vigor by a greater capacity 
of endurance as well as by freedom, boldness, and 
healthiness of thought. We may as well look for 
easy walking in a Chinese lady, whose feet have 
grown in iron shoes, and those very small ones, as 
for easy thinking in a mind that has been cast in a 
mold constructed to suit the minimi of the million. 
The reflective and perceptive faculties are too 
generally sacrificed at school for the sake of mere 
verbal memory ; and hence those who were really 
most highly endowed appeared, while there, most 
deficient scholars — such as Liebig, Newton, and 
Walter Scott. 

' In conclusion of this chapter we may observe, 
that the modern system of education appears to 
be altogether unchristian ; undoubtedly it contrib- 
utes much to swell the fearful list of diseases, for it 
is founded on an unhealthy emulation, which ruins 
many both in body and in soul, while it qualifies none 
the better either for business knowledge, useful- 
ness, or enjoyment ; but, rather, together with the 
influence of the money valuation of the intellect, 
causes the most heroic spirits of our age to hang 
upon vulgar opinion and the state of the market. 



CHAPTER III. 

PECULIAR EFFECTS OF INORDINATE MENTAL 
DETERMINATION. 

The strongest brain will fail under the continu- 
ance of intense thought. All persons, who have 
been accustomed to close study, will remember 
the utter and indescribable confusion that comes 
over the mind when the will has wearied the brain. 
A curious example has already been given in the 
case of Spalding, who tells us that his attention 
having been long kept on the stretch, and also 
greatly distracted, he was called upon to write a 
receipt, but he had no sooner written two words 
than he could proceed no further. For half an 
hour he could neither think consecutively, nor 
speak, except in words which he did not intend. 
Afterward he recovered, and found that instead of 
writing on the receipt " fifty dollars, being half a 
year's rate," &c, he had written " fifty dollars, 
through the salvation of Bra — ," the last word be- 
ing left unfinished, and without his having the least 
recollection of what he intended it to be. This 
state presents a specimen of partial delirium or 



UNDUE MENTAL DETERMINATION. 1S1 

waking dream ; the will still acting, but incapable 
of controlling the thoughts or connecting memory 
with present impression. This must depend on 
the state of nerve produced by the mental intensity, 
which, when continued to extreme exhaustion, we 
know to be capable of so altering the sensation as 
that objects presented to the eye assume appear- 
ances which do not belong to them. Thus Sir 
Joshua Reynolds, after being occupied many hours 
in painting, saw trees in lamp-posts, and moving 
shrubs in men and women. This kind of inability 
to command attention is most readily induced 
by monotonous study. Persons of lymphatic tem- 
perament are peculiarly liable to this kind of ex- 
haustion, and should therefore employ their minds 
with great caution, or otherwise their determina- 
tion will prove the destruction of their reason ; for, 
in fact, a persistence of this want of control over 
attention is insanity, as we see in those instances in 
which persons confound things together of an in- 
congruous nature ; as when the anatomist, having 
fatigued his nervous system by a long-continued 
dissection, talked of a town to which he referred 
as situated in the deltoid muscle. Disorder from 
excessive attention is sometimes manifested in a 
still odder manner, as in the case of the celebrated 
Dr. Watts, who, after great exertion of mind, 
thought his head too large to allow him to pass out 
at the study door. A gentleman, after delivering 
a lecture at the College of Surgeons, said that his 
head felt as if it filled the room. Sometimes fatigue 
produces permanent insanity. Thus, in the Ger- 
man Psychological Magazine, a case is related of a 

Q 



182 PECULIAR EFFECTS OF UNDUE 

soldier who, after great fatigue, happened to read 
the book of Daniel, and from that moment believ- 
ed that he could perform miracles, such as plant an 
apple-tree which, by his power, should bear cher- 
ries. Determinate effort of mind sometimes in- 
duces a peculiar insanity, when the nervous system 
becomes habituated to extreme exhaustion. A cer- 
tain form of this malady occurs in paroxysms of 
ecstatic abstraction suddenly seizing the person and 
fixing him like a living statue ; with the body slight- 
ly bent, every limb rigid with rapture, the arms 
elevated, the fore-finger pointed to some imagined 
object, the eyelids staring wide, the eyes turned 
up with an intense and motionless expression, 
and the lips a little separated; in short, the whole 
attitude and countenance expressive of the most 
awful admiration. This is the description of 
a real case arising from intense concentration 
of thought, continued without regard to bod- 
ily exercise or proper change in the mental ob- 
ject.^ 

It is remarkable that similar states may be pro- 
duced by the will of another, even in those who 
have not shown any tendency to it, when they sur- 
render their wills to the impressions produced by 
another's action. Baron Dupotet, who lately made 
some noise in London by his feats of mesmerism, 
had the power, by his manoeuvers, of speedily 
throwing certain individuals either into sleep, or 
convulsions, or a rigid condition, such as that just 
described. This was effected without any collusion, 
and in many cases without the slightest idea on the 
patient's part of what was likely to follow. Such 



MENTAL DETERMINATION. 183 

facts are never disputed by physiologists now, and, 
perhaps, they may be generally accounted for by 
the direct action of the mind on the body, or, at 
least, by mental excitement in connection with some 
disorder of the nervous system ; since they are quite 
in keeping with what we observe to arise indepen- 
dently of those tricks of hand called animal magnet- 
ism. In these cases, as far as I have witnessed 
them, there appears to be a propagation of impres- 
sion from the senses, especially sight, to the center 
of the individual's nervous system, thereby altering 
the direction of nervous energy. Intense and 
eager attention, with undefined dread, and with the 
eye fixed on the hand or eye of a person apparent- 
ly set upon bewitching one, is a process which few 
could submit to for any length of time without 
strange sensations being produced. Hence it has 
happened that a firm man, who knew nothing about 
the matter, has sat down with laughter, but soon 
his attention has been fixed upon the wizard's hand, 
and ere long he has looked unutterably stupid, like 
a drunkard, then turned pale, then became immov- 
able, except just as the magician before him was 
pleased to point — now with his nose to the ground 
— now upward — now aslant — now with body twist- 
ed this way — now that— now standing — now sit- 
ting—and now walking, or rather stalking, just 
as the pantomimic indications of the enchanter; 
and all this, as it appeared, simply from the 
effect of an unnatural and overpowering atten- 
tion on a brain unprepared by a habit of healthy 
action. 

In ecstasy or trance, the patient's mind is ab- 



184 PECULIAR EFFECTS OF UNDUE 

sorbed on some object of imagination ; as the term 
ecstasy implies, persons so impressed are out of 
the body, engrossed in spiritual contemplations. 
The muscles are sometimes relaxed, at other times 
rigid ; the will, however, often continues to exert 
an influence over certain parts of the body, such as 
the organs of voice ; for though they are incapable 
of moving a limb, or being excited by any external 
stimulus, they nevertheless occasionally give ex- 
pression to their feelings by singing or speaking. 
This kind of entrancing delirium is apt to occur in 
persons afflicted by nervous disorder, especially 
where the will is wayward; and may frequently 
be produced in them by powerful excitement of 
the imagination, or by mesmeric manipulations. It 
is stated by individuals well qualified to detect im- 
position, that in these cases there exists a kind of 
transference and concentration of intelligence in 
certain parts of the nervous system, so that a sort 
of oracular faculty is developed, and the subjects 
of this affection become capable of describing things 
beyond the range of their senses, and of foretelling 
events. Dr. Copland states that many of the Ital- 
ian improvisatori possess their peculiar faculty 
only in this state of ecstasy, or, as it may be called, 
abnormal consciousness, from resolute attention to 
ideas. 

Probably the mind and the nervous system are 
intensely excited for some time previous to the 
development of ecstasy. There is a morbid acute- 
ness of feeling and thought, an inordinate employ- 
ment of the attention, kept up by preceding sen- 
sations, or some absorbing train of ideas, which 



MENTAL DETERMINATION. 185 

exhaust the sensorium, and bring it into that state 
in which it often appears to be in those persons 
who accustom themselves to abstract studies and 
revery. This condition is more apt to occur when 
strong passions are associated with a weak body. 
A frequent and exhausting repetition of pleasurable 
feelings begets a marked predisposition to this dis- 
ordered action of the brain. 

If all that is stated concerning ecstasy be true, 
we are forced to the conclusion that, after the ex- 
haustion of brain is carried to a certain extent, the 
mind begins voluntarily to exert itself in a new and 
enlarged manner, so as to exhibit phenomena which 
have been named lucidity, exaltation of faculty, 
clairvoyance, &c. The transition state may pre- 
sent appearances like those of common delirium, 
dreaming, somnambulism, and madness. It is 
often accompanied by convulsions. A few cases 
of an extraordinary kind may best illustrate this 
curious subject. It has been testified that cat- 
aleptic patients often manifest a clairvoyant fac- 
ulty. A patient of Petetin, President of the 
Medical Society of Lyons, in this state, is said 
to have distinguished in succession several cards 
laid on her stomach under the bed-clothes ; she 
told the hour of a watch held in the closed hand 
of an inquirer, and recognized a medal grasped 
in the hand of another; she read a letter placed 
under the waistcoat of her physician, and mentioned 
the number of gold and silver coins contained in 
each end of a purse which had been slipped there 
by a skeptic. She told each of the persons present 
what he possessed about him most remarkable, and 



186 PECULIAR EFFECTS OF UNDUE 

perceived through a screen what one person was 
doing. 

According to the testimony of the committee of 
the medical section of the French Royal Academy, 
a man named Paul, having been mesmerized, be- 
side many other equally wonderful things, read a 
book opened at random while his eyes were forci- 
bly closed by M. Jules Cloquet. He had been 
mesmerized by M. Foissac. The committee also 
bear evidence that other individuals in the same 
state could read distinctly and play at cards with 
the greatest dexterity and correctness. Their 
report also declares, " that in two somnambu- 
lists they found the faculty of foreseeing. One 
of them announced repeatedly, several months 
previously, the day, the hour, and the minute 
of the access and return of epileptic fits. The 
other announced the period of his cure. These 
previsions were realized with remarkable exact- 
ness.' ' 

Those who are curious in these marvels may find 
abundance of them in many modern works. It 
certainly would be passing strange should such re- 
lations all prove false, since the acutest observers 
of all ages have declared them to be true. At 
least, Hippocrates, Aretaeus, Aristotle, &c, de- 
scribe with great minuteness, and in strict accord- 
ance with the statements of recent and competent 
believers, a state of the body in which the powers 
of the soul are exalted. Thus, Hippocrates says, 
" there is a class of diseases in which men discourse 
with eloquence and wisdom, and predict secret and 
future events ; and this they do though they are 



MENTAL DETERMINATION. 187 

ignorant rustics and idiots." Aretaeus states that 
the mind under certain circumstances of disease be- 
comes clear and prophetic, for some patients " pre- 
dict their own end and certain events of interest to 
those around, who think them talking deliriously, 
but nevertheless are amazed to find their predic- 
tions true." 

Alsaharavius says, he has known many epileptics 
who had a knowledge of things which he was sure 
they had never learned. The occasional prevision 
of the dying has been credited by almost every na- 
tion, and the faculty of second sight has been almost 
as universally acknowledged. 

In most of the cases related in this chapter, it is 
probable that the attention was kept so long in- 
tensely fixed on one set of objects, that at length 
the brain took on a new action, as if from physio- 
logical necessity, or because the law of its organi- 
zation demanded a change, violent in proportion to 
its abuse. We know that there is, while awake, a 
tendency to repeat sensations and ideas in an ac- 
customed manner, and that there is also, during the 
suspension of outward attention, a tendency to a 
state contrary to that previously existing ; thus a 
man who has been almost maddened by vain de- 
sire, say for food, will, during his sleep, enjoy a 
fancied feast. From this and many similar facts 
we learn that the mind possesses the power of se- 
curing its own satisfaction when withdrawn from 
the demands of the body ; that one train of ideas 
can be displaced only by substituting another ; that 
obedience to the laws of our bodily and mental 



188 UNDUE MENTAL DETERMINATION. 

economy is imperative ; and hence, that there is a 
necessity for exercising the will in a judicious, 
moral, and religious manner, if we would enjoy a 
healthy habit of thinking and acting. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE EFFECTS OF UNDUE ATTENTION TO ONE'S 
OWN BODY. 

It has been already observed, that the education 
of the senses is a mental act, in which attention and 
comparison are busily at work, to determine the 
relation of objects to each other and to the individ- 
ual regarding them. Where the organs are per- 
fect, the power of perception or the acuteness of 
sensation is in proportion to the power of the mind 
in directing attention, or in proportion to the degree 
in which the particular sense is used, hence we find 
microscopic observers, for instance, acquire such a 
command over their sight, in the use of their in- 
struments, as to detect the minutest variations in 
objects, and. such slight shades of difference as would 
be altogether overlooked by persons unaccustomed 
to such investigations. This education of sense, 
under the tuition of the will, is displayed in the 
most remarkable manner among those savage tribes, 
whose very existence depends upon the keenness 
of their senses, in discovering indications of danger 
or of safety among the wilds in which they dwell, 
and where civilized men would be wholly at a loss 
either to track prey or to avoid an enemy. The 



190 UNDUE ATTENTION TO THE BODY. 

dominion of the mind over certain organs of the 
body is beautifully shown in such instances ; but 
there are curious facts in connection with this sub- 
ject well worthy of observation. It is not the 
senses merely that may be rendered more acute by 
effort of mind. Attention to any part of the body 
is capable of exalting the sensibility of that part, or 
of causing the consciousness concerning its state to 
be affected in a new manner. Thus a man may 
attend to his stomach till he feels the process of di- 
gestion ; to his heart, till conscious of its contrac- 
tions ; to his brain, till he turns dizzy with a sense 
of action within it ; to any of his limbs, till they tin- 
gle ; to himself, till tremblingly alive all over ; and 
to his ideas, till he confounds them with realities. 

We have remarked that persons of high intellect- 
ual endowment are capable of abstracting the at- 
tention from external objects, and of so applying it 
to the objects of thought as to become almost insen- 
sible to those of sense. On this power of abstrac- 
tion depends the degree and success of studious 
habit. By it reason expands the scope of her vis- 
ion, and acquires increased sagacity in every fresh 
exercise of her faculties. Fixing the attention on 
abstract truths is like lifting the veil between the 
world of sense and the world of spirit. By endeav- 
oring to look, we see farther along the vista of life, 
and by abstraction we place ourselves in a position 
to be actuated by new influences. By striving and 
urging after truth, we get more and more familiar 
with her footsteps. When we would leam more 
of some mystery important to us, we turn away 
from all other subjects, and cast our attention in 



UNDUE ATTENTION TO THE BODY. 191 

upon the consciousness of our own spirits, as if ex- 
pecting there to discover a reply to our inquiry; 
and. by thus standing, as it were, in the attitude of 
expectation, to observe thoughts as they pass before 
us, we often discover great secrets, and find our 
moral nature enlightened and enlarged by new con- 
victions and new desires ; for by this mental retire- 
ment we become most susceptible of spiritual im- 
pressions. But, by some mysterious reaction, this 
strong awakening of the mind renders it more con- 
scious of the body, when the abstraction is over, 
and hence the most intellectual are generally also 
the most sensitive of mortals. 

Many diseases are produced, increased, and 
perpetuated by the attention being directed to the 
disordered part ; but employment which diverts 
the attention from disease, often cures it. Every 
one who has had a tooth drawn, knows the charm 
of expecting the final agony; a sight of the oper- 
ator or the instruments has put the pain to flight. 
The celebrated metaphysician, Kant, was able to 
forget the pain of gout by a voluntary effort of 
thought, but it always caused a dangerous rush of 
blood to the head. 

We may compare sensibility to a fluid, as 
Cabanis did, and suppose it to exist in a deter- 
minate quantity, capable of being diverted from 
one channel into another, according to the state 
of the mind and nervous system ; thus causing an 
accumulation of exalted sensibility in one part 
of the body and a proportionate diminution in 
other parts. This state existed in the cases cited 
in a former chapter. In ecstasies the brain and 



192 UNDUE ATTENTION TO THE BODY. 

sympathetic nerves appear to become highly ener- 
getic, while the vital feeling seems to have forsaken 
other parts of the system. Something akin to this 
must have taken place in those violent fanatics, 
the Convulsionists of St. Medard, who submitted 
with impunity and pleasure to severe wounds 
from swords and hatchets, which, in the ordinary 
state of sensibility, would have destroyed life. But 
these ecstatic and ascetic beings called such blows 
their consolations, and entreated to be mangled 
and beaten by the strongest men and the largest 
weapons. 

The mesmeric magic also, by giving a strong 
and new determination to the mind, seems to 
endow it with new power of action, by calling into 
exercise a concentrated or intense sensibility, and 
a mode of nervous energy to which the organs 
have not been accustomed, and which therefore 
induces an apparently supernatural train of phe- 
nomena ; for function and orgasm seem to be due 
to the unknown agent which confers sensibility and 
action upon structure. 

The attention being unduly fixed upon the body 
itself, instead of being employed in controlling 
the limbs and senses in active exercise about the 
proper business of life, causes, or at least often ag- 
gravates, the morbid consciousness which torments 
the hypochondriac. The sensation of disease of 
course may precede this, and is perhaps necessary 
to the first excitement of attention to the vital 
functions in an unnaturally acute manner, but 
perverted consciousness commences the instant we 
fail to obey the laws of our constitution, which 



UNDUE ATTENTION TO THE BODY. 193 

require us to attend to other objects rather_.th.an. 
to ourselves. If we use not our faculties on their 
proper objects, improper thoughts will present 
themselves, and the moral equilibrium will thus 
be destroyed by inward and selfish attention, and 
the intellectual eyesight become confirmed in its 
obliquity ; for we are intended to be healthy and 
happy only as long as our minds are occupied in 
acquiring intelligence from things around us, or 
by reciprocal interest with other beings. It would 
indeed appear that our Creator designed us to be 
employed rather on objects around us, and in as- 
sociation with the activities of other minds, than 
on the operations of our own ; for we find that 
our efforts to concentrate attention on the pro- 
cess of our own thoughts speedily begets a most 
painful confusion; nor can we even summon our 
memory for the restoration of a forgotten idea 
and search with any diligence for its recovery, 
without such fatigue as either compels us soon to 
relinquish the pursuit, or else, if we obstinately 
persist, induces a nervous headache and imbe- 
cility, nearly approaching to aberration of intel- 
lect. The mastery over our own minds, except 
in obedience to social laws, is denied to us. 
Healthy thinking and mental association are one. 
If we would think safely we must think naturally ; 
that is, in relation to others, and our thoughts 
must lead to action. There must be a degree of 
spontaneous readiness and submission of mind to 
the common course of association and feeling. 
Not that we possess no power of selecting from 
the ideas which present themselves to our imagi- 
13 I 



194 UNDUE ATTENTION TO THE BODY. 

nation. Far otherwise — the gift and extent of 
reason consists in this selection ;. but the success 
with which we employ our faculties depends not 
on desire, but on training, that is, on the habit of 
our intellect in sympathy with other minds, and 
according to our familiarity with facts, appear- 
ances, and employments. In short, observation is 
the basis of our ability, and outward exertion is 
its security ; but self-consciousness, or attentive 
analysis of the operations and sensations of our 
own minds, endangers the well-being of our rea- 
son, and is the frequent cause of insanity. Hence, 
then, we learn the paramount importance of our 
sympathies being suitably excited, for this is 
proper mental cultivation. 

To this end it is essential that the growing mind 
should be educated in truth under the direction of 
those who themselves feel and obey it. The will 
of one is influenced by the will of others, and the 
union of a body of persons, under the same proper 
convictions, is, especially to youthful reason and 
affection, the strongest safeguard and most per- 
suasive government. Hence the value of some 
central truth attracting together individuals, who 
will test all their opinions by their one uniting 
faith. Christianity is founded on this principle ; 
for it is a central light which imparts due color 
to all objects, and it is evermore successful in 
proportion as its one grand truth is insisted on 
and believed. 

The sanity of society, as well as of individual 
minds, is secured only by faith in some common 
object of regard, and the commencement both of 



UNDUE ATTENTION TO THE BODY. 195 

personal and social hypocrisy is the abstraction of 
regard from the common interest, for the purpose 
of attending to self. Here schism and confusion 
begin, but here they do not end ; for party spirit, 
or endemic hypocrisy, is but extended selfishness, 
and personal moral derangement made more gen- 
eral and infectious. We see, then, that obedience 
alone is safety; but the idea of obedience implies 
a belief in the revelation of a supreme will; a pow- 
er regarding which we can not dispute ; for, as 
long as we question the existence of supreme pow- 
er and appointment, we deny the right to govern, 
even in the Almighty. It follows then, that, in 
order to the formation of true moral impressions, 
correct thinking, and hence correct conduct, there 
must be a true revelation of God's will. The 
legitimate end of this argument, then, appears to 
be, that, if God has revealed himself, as we believe 
He has in nature, naturally, in the Bible, explicitly, 
then our business with regard to both revelations 
is to learn and to obey, since nothing more is need- 
ed for our happiness. In fact our faculties are fit 
for nothing else, and if we insist upon employing 
them in any other manner, we must meet the pen- 
alty — madness and misery. 

" All declare 



For what the Eternal Maker has ordained 
The powers of man : we feel within ourselves 
His energy divine : he tells the heart 
He meant, he made us to behold and love 
What he beholds and loves, the general orb 
Of life and being — to be great like him, 
Beneficent and active." — Akenside. 

But to return to. the eifect of attention on the body. 



196 UNDUE ATTENTION TO THE BODY. 

There is an artificial mode of producing sleep, by 
fatiguing the muscles of the eye, which is effected 
by a strained and intent gaze at any object, real or 
ideal, viewed under an acute angle. Perhaps, by 
this effort, the irritability of those muscles becomes 
exhausted, and also that of the optic nerve — the 
result is giddiness, mistiness of sight, and, soon after, 
sleep. Congestion is induced in the eyes, and car- 
ried thence to the optic and other nerves of the 
eyes, and, owing to their proximity to the origin of 
the nerves of respiration and circulation, sympa- 
thetically affects these also, and thus enfeebles the 
action of the heart and lungs. If the mind resign 
itself to sleep, an orderly, slow breathing takes 
place, and the whole body soon becomes com- 
posed ; but if mental effort continue to resist the 
disposition to drowsiness, another order of phe- 
nomena occurs, similar to those frequently arising 
from mesmerism. The heart's more feeble action 
first produces coldness of the extremities and gen- 
eral pallor of the surface ; the blood is consequent- 
ly accumulated in the region of the heart. The 
brain, and probably the spinal and sympathetic 
system of nerves, become congested in consequence, 
and then many strange and curious phenomena, re- 
sulting from irregularity in the circulation of the 
blood and nervous energy, speedily follow. The 
inability to raise the upper eyelid, under these cir- 
cumstances, arises from a kind of paralysis of its 
muscles ; a paralysis which is apt, at the same time, 
to affect other parts. Of course morbid conscious- 
ness, in various organs of the body, is manifested 
according to the different modifications of mental 



UNDUE ATTENTION TO THE BODY. 197 

and bodily constitution in the various persons sub- 
jected to such experiments. 

A case is related by Dr. George Cheyne, which 
affords a very curious illustration of the voluntary 
influence of the mind over the body in modifying 
vital action and sensibility. A Colonel Townsend, 
residing at Bath, sent for Drs. Baynard and Cheyne, 
and a Mr. Skrine, to give them some account of an 
odd sensation which he had for some time felt, 
which was, that he could expire when he pleased, 
and, by an effort, come to life again. He insisted 
so much on their seeing the trial made, that they 
were forced at last to comply. They all three felt 
his pulse, which was distinct and had the usual 
beat. He then composed himself on his back for 
some time. By the nicest scrutiny they were soon 
unable to discover the least sign of life, and at last 
were satisfied that he was actually dead ; and were 
just about to leave him, with the idea that the ex- 
periment had been carried too far, when they ob- 
served a slight motion in the body, and gradually 
the pulsation of the heart returned, and he quite 
recovered. In the evening of the same day, how- 
ever, he composed himself in the same manner and 
really died. Disease of the heart, under unnatural 
attention to the organ, caused the phenomena. 
Cardan must have been subject to some singular 
disease, for he says, " Whenever I wish it, I can go 
out of my body so as to feel no sensation whatever, 
as if I were in ecstasy. When I enter this state, 
or, more properly speaking, when I plunge myself 
into ecstasy, I feel my soul issuing out of my heart, 
and, as it were, quitting it, as well as the rest of 



198 UNDUE ATTENTION TO THE BODY. 

my body, through a small aperture formed at first 
in the head and particularly in the cerebellum. 
This aperture, which runs down the spinal column, 
can only be kept open by great effort. In this sit- 
uation I feel nothing but the bare consciousness of 
existing out of my own body, from which I am dis- 
tinctly separated. But I can not remain in this state 
more than a very few moments." 

Some strange philosophers have entertained so 
daring an idea of the mightiness of the will over 
the vital organization, as to declare, that if a man 
determined not to die, he would not. The will, 
however, has scarcely any thing to do with the 
matter; for it is a fact, that the bodily condition 
immediately preceding death generally produces, 
or at least is accompanied by, such a quiescence of 
mind, that volition itself seems to slumber or con- 
sent to death, and there is almost always after long 
and great debility a peaceful anticipation of the 
coming event. 



CHAPTER V. 

MISEMPLOYMENT OF THE MIND. 

The foregoing facts forcibly teach us, as indeed 
does every man's experience, that rest is as neces- 
sary as action, and neither body nor mind continue 
fit for the business of this life without an occasional 
withdrawal of the will, either in sleep, or in a little 
quiet castle-building, or brown-study. 

"The understanding takes repose 
In indolent vacuity of thought, 
And sleeps and is refreshed." 

The mind thus proceeds dreamily, and therefore 
without that determination of blood to the brain 
which the continued exercise of volition and de- 
sire always occasions ; for the will demands a 
large supply of blood in order to evolve nervous 
power for the energizing of the muscles, as volition 
is peculiarly associated with muscular function, 
proving that healthy will is necessarily connected 
with bodily activity. This indolent vacuity, how- 
ever, may become habitual, and then a legion of 
evils of a worse kind crowd in upon the soul, for 
irritability takes the place of natural action when 
the body is not duly employed, 



200 MISEMPLOYMENT OF THE MIND. 

Neglect of education often causes permanent 
inability to maintain attention. If the faculties 
be not strengthened by occasional exercise under 
proper teaching, the soul becomes at length the 
slave of imagination, and is apt to dally with any 
empty fancy that may attract it. Some ignis 
fatuus, some foolish glitter of false light, is the 
only object likely to be pursued by a person who 
has not been taught from childhood the use of 
reason, or who has not enjoyed the blessing of 
high motives and encouragement imparted by ex- 
ample. If such a one read, it is for amusement, 
without the smallest power of grasping argument ; 
and he being, from the idle habit of the brain, at 
the mercy of vulgar or ludicrous associations, the 
most serious subjects provoke loose ideas, instead 
of conducing to thoughtfulness and improvement. 
This kind of madness is very common with ill- 
educated young persons, before the trials of life 
correct their vagrant fancies, and subdue their 
selfishness. Frivolity of mind sometimes settles 
into permanent insanity in such persons, and a 
multiplicity of unmeaning, unprofitable, unapplied 
thoughts succeed each other with ungoverned ra- 
pidity ; for imagination must act when the will 
and judgment decline their duty ; and thus at 
length the poor, imbecile trifler, by the abuse of 
his nervous system, has his life converted into a 
miserable dream, and he becomes visibly a fool ; 
for his form and features, action and expression, 
correspond with his mental imbecility. The pur- 
suit of sensual exciting and enervating pleasures, 
— another turn which the mind not intellectually 



MISEMPLOYMENT OF THE MIND. 201 

employed is apt to take, — speedily conducts the 
giddy youth, as many such cases testify, to the 
worst cells of the madhouse. The stock of enjoy- 
ment being soon exhausted, the brain becomes 
useless ; and worn in body and debased in mind, 
the wretched victim of imaginative sensuality is 
early subjected to every species of morbid sensa- 
tion and desire. Having neither taste nor energy 
for rational pursuit, without resource in intellect, 
affection, or religion, he becomes, at length, the 
prey of a terrible despair, which terminates only 
in idiocy or death. 

Sentimentalism, and all other mental extrava- 
gances, are but the different directions which 
uncultivated minds are accustomed to take, and 
unhappily these dispositions are highly contagious. 
" There is nothing so absurd, false, prodigious, 
but, either out of affection of novelty, simplicity, 
blind zeal, hope and fear, the giddy-headed mul- 
titude will embrace it, and without examination 
approve it."* All these are evinced by bodily 
peculiarities and disorders in keeping with their 
mental causes, and thus men's creeds and fancies 
are almost expressed in their bodies. The conta- 
gion of folly, moreover, spreads widely and rapidly ; 
because the physical constitution of fallen man is 
in direct sympathy with those passions which most 
readily manifest themselves in the features, the 
attitude, the action, the language, the tone of 
voice, the turn of a hand. We are all more or 
less moved by what we witness of feeling in 
others ; and as, when the body is weakened by 
* Burton. 
I* 



202 MISEMPLOYMENT OF THE MIND. 

fatigue, nervous disorders — =-such as hysteria, con- 
vulsions, and epilepsy — may be communicated to 
multitudes by their compliance with the instinct 
of imitation; so the powerful exhibition of any 
passion or enthusiasm is apt to impress all those 
who witness it with a potency, proportioned to the 
vigor of their nerves, and the degree of control 
which their reason is accustomed to exercise over 
their sensations. We may thus readily account 
for the wide and almost universal diffusion of the 
dancing mania, and other maladies, partaking both 
of a moral and a physical character, during the dark 
ages, and among people unblessed by the restrain- 
ing habits and elevating associations of rational and 
religious education. All history is full of evidence 
that ignorant minds yield at once to the force of 
sensual impressions ; and that, because the brain 
and nerves, when not governed by indwelling in- 
telligence, are predisposed to obey whatever im- 
pulse from without may demand their sympathy. 
Hence, also, every species of violent emotion is 
irresistably propagated among such persons ; for 
insanity, and the most obstinate forms of nervous 
disorder, thus become epidemic ; and, like the 
swine possessed by the legion of demons, those 
who are not fortified by truth rush, one after 
another, over the precipice to destruction. When 
considering the influence of sympathy, we shall 
find further illustrations of this subject. But not 
only are such thoughtless, ill-trained persons apt to 
suffer in this manner, but also all who live rather in 
lonely speculation than in active usefulness. Such 
individuals are exceedingly liable to a disorder 



MISEMPLOYMENT OF THE MIND. 203 

called hypochondriasis, which is manifestly con- 
nected with bodily disease, arising from injudicious 
employment of the brain, in solitary musings and 
deep and protracted study, or anxieties without 
the relief of frequent social intercourse and cheer- 
ful exercise. Luther, speaking of his own tendency 
to this malady, arising from excessive and anxious 
application, says, " Heavy thoughts do enforce 
rheums : when the soul is busied with grievous 
cogitations, the body must partake of the same. 
When cares, heavy cogitations, sorrows, and pas- 
sions, do exceed, then they weaken the body ; 
which, without the soul, is dead, or like a horse 
without one to rule it. But when the heart is at 
rest and quiet, then it taketh care of the body. 
Whoso is possessed with these trials, should in no 
case be alone nor hide himself, and so bite and 
torment himself with his and the devil's cogitations 
and possessings ; for the Holy Ghost saith, ' Wo 
to him that is alone.' " 

Of course, as the mind is always employed while 
a person is awake, one train of ideas can not be 
displaced but by substituting another. Hence the 
importance of change of place and of object when 
the affections or emotions are morbidly excited, or 
the nervous system enervated by the continued ac- 
tion of one train of thought. 

Hypochondriasis presents itself in the most 
whimsical forms, in consequence of the morbid 
condition of those nerves which conduce to sensa- 
tion. Thus some imagine themselves dead, and 
others declare their bodies to be the abode of un- 
heard-of maladies. One thinks his stomach is full 



204 MISEMPLOYMENT OF THE MIND. 

of frogs, and he hears them croak ; another thinks 
his body a lump of butter, and he is afraid to walk 
in the sun, lest he should be melted. A lady, who 
had led an idle life, imagined herself a pound of 
candles, and dreaded the approach of night, fear- 
ing the maid should take a part of her for use. 

That illusive convictions are all more or less as- 
sociated with actual disorder of that part of the 
nervous system on which perception depends, is 
evident from sensation being so blunted in many 
bad cases, that persons so afflicted do not feel any 
thing applied to the skin. This is exemplified to 
the greatest extent in a case related by Foville. A 
man was wounded at the battle of Austerlitz, and 
ever after he was insanely convinced that he had 
no bodily existence ; and there seemed to be no 
method of convincing him to the contrary ; for, in 
fact, he was not sensible of any thing done to his 
body, unless he saw the action : feeling was quite 
absent. Whether this affection arose from impres- 
sion first received on his mind, or on his body, it is 
difficult to discover ; but it is certain that such mal- 
adies are sometimes cured by merely convincing 
the mind of its mistake. 

Nervous diseases, being disorders of sensation 
as well as of will, are to be treated with great pa- 
tience and forbearance ; although the whimsicali- 
ties of the complaint are frequently so ludicrous 
that "to be grave exceeds all power of face." 
Many droll stories might be written concerning 
them, but who can deem them fit to be laughed at ] 
It will be found that nervous exhaustion, from over 
attention, or repeated sensation without proper in- 



MISEMPLOYMENT OF THE MIND. 205 

tervals of rest, is the common cause of this strange 
malady. These states of mind may perhaps be 
sometimes the result of violent, long-continued, and 
irresistible emotion; yet we must not be unmind- 
ful that they are frequently the inevitable conse- 
quence of neglecting the early discipline of the 
will; for the dominion of passion over judgment 
generally presupposes a moral dereliction. 

The potency of emotion over our bodies is every- 
where visible ; for our whole active life is alto- 
gether an exhibition of passions at their work, and 
our projects and our plans are directed to no other 
end than the gratification of desire. The most 
restless spirit soonest destroys the body, but the 
most bustling is not the busiest soul — mental inten- 
sity is silent. It is the mind that uses life, and the 
law of our earthly existence is equally broken both 
by inaction and by excess. The motive power re- 
quires regulation ; for whether too rapid or too slow, 
if the action be irregular, the machinery is equally 
endangered. We are formed for moderation ; and 
our safety consists only with the steady employment 
of vital power under moral restraints ; hence, dis- 
tinctness of object and purpose is essential to health 
of mind, and for the preservation of that orderly ac- 
tion of the nervous system without which we are dis- 
eased in body also. Every faculty and function, 
therefore, requires its appropriate exercise, for inac- 
tion is scarcely more liable to be followed by a mor- 
bid train of miseries than is disappointed or distracted 
activity. The interruption of a mental purpose or 
desire involves the material through which the mind 
acts in its own disorder, as the machinery suffers 
S 



206 MISEMPLOYMENT OF THE MIND. 

when the power which puts it into motion is fitfully 
employed, or unduly excited or misdirected. Our 
experience testifies that the greatest mental confu- 
sion and distress of brain arise not so much from 
steadily continued and determined effort of the 
mind, in a rational manner, as from interruption to 
the purpose of the will. Thus, when some daily 
vexation breaks the chain of thought, or draws the 
attention off from the intellectual pursuit on which 
the spirit had earnestly been bent, displeasure and 
distraction take the place of complacency, and the 
cause of the disturbance is apt, when thus fre- 
quently returning, to take complete possession of 
the mind, and to haunt the attention like a hateful 
goblin, blighting the soul with its cloudy presence. 
Hence the soured misanthrope often appears when 
the philosopher might have been expected ; for un- 
less the man of thought has his heart soothed by 
affectionate and comfortable appliances, in a suita- 
ble and seasonable manner, his resolute and per- 
plexed spirit, incapable of resting from reflection, 
is very likely to find successive vexations terminate 
in madness, or some milder form of mental de- 
rangement or unhappy eccentricity, which con- 
strains him to seek pleasure only in imagination 
and with solitude. 

Those who are connected with persons consti- 
tutionally prone to reflectiveness can not be too 
cautious in their manner of opposing the bias of 
their dispositions, or too gently endeavor to win 
them from the danger of absorbing study, for both 
their sensibilities and affections are generally fine 
in proportion to the intensity with which they ha- 



MISEMPLOYMENT OF THE MIND. 207 

bitually contemplate the objects of their attention. 
Men of genius, whatever the direction of their 
minds, are usually as full of feeling as of thought, 
their intellect being urged on under the dominion 
of that love which can not rest without constant 
approval. Their habit of abstraction may cause 
them to appear selfish, unsocial, or absurdly whim- 
sical, but they are only engaged too intensely to ex- 
hibit in an ordinary manner the appearance of 
passing interest. They are, however, exactly those 
who are most subject to insanity, as their minds are 
kept unavoidably busy to the full extent of nervous 
endurance. Yet persons of this deep style of 
thinking and feeling are most devoted to the well- 
being of others, and are the first to demonstrate 
the nobility of their nature by those self-sacrifices 
which have distinguished the best names in his- 
tory. 

Cowper and Byron may be instanced as oppo- 
site examples of bad modes of education, termina- 
ting in morbid habits of thinking, and exhibiting by 
fits and starts the finest traits of generous nature in 
the most contrary and inconsistent manners. 



CHAPTER VI. 



CHAGRIN AND SUICIDE. 



We know that determination must vastly excite 
the brain when the student or the statesman is in- 
duced, by desire for doubtful distinction, to spend 
his days and his nights in the distractions of vacil- 
lating hopes and fears. Under the strain of these 
conflicting passions, how many a mighty mind sinks 
into insanity, amid the mysterious darkness of 
which some demon whispers close upon the ear, 
" No hope, no aim, no use in life, the knife is now 
before you." Long, however, before this terrific 
state of mind occurs, the body gives unheeded 
warning of the growing danger, by irregular appe- 
tites, tormenting visions, and unaccountable sensa- 
tions ; for insanity is always a bodily malady, al- 
though perhaps in most cases moral delinquency is 
superadded, and the will has been disordered be- 
fore the body. Although the destructive propen- 
sity may sometimes cause suicide under a sudden 
impulse, or it may even arise from a morbid dispo- 
sition to imitate, yet it is probable that the irrita- 
bility of the body, which allows not a respite to the 
soul, from the constant stimulus to attention and 
will, most frequently drives the melancholy maniac 



CHAGRIN AND SUICIDE. 209 

to commit suicide. Death seems in these cases the 
only refuge from the weary vigilance of morbid 
sensibility. This awful remedy is frequently sought 
under the impulse of a kind of instinct, when the 
mind becomes so possessed by its misery as to be 
quite incapable of comparing the desire felt with 
previous convictions, and so the patient is blindly 
urged on, by longing for relief, to use the first op- 
portunity for self-destruction which may present 
itself, association only serving to connect the means 
of death with the idea of escape from a tormenting 
body, or some haunting impression. The frequent 
connection of the disposition to suicide with the de- 
spondent forms of insanity, warrants the supposi- 
tion that despair, if not met by the solace of affec- 
tion, would always lead its subject to the same dark 
resort, as the scorpion is said to destroy itself with 
its own stingy when encircled by dangers from which 
it can not escape. 

The love of approbation, which is closely con- 
nected with the love of society, is generally the 
strongest of our passions, and is that by which the 
lower passions are restrained within the limits of 
common decorum. It is the disappointment of this 
passion, or chagrin, which most frequently disposes 
to suicide. Man's hell is the feeling of solitude, or 
the dread of being despised ; and if his associates 
cast him out of their pale, or appear completely to 
excommunicate him from their sympathies, he seems 
as if at once possessed by Satan. Should this 
wounding of his proud desire deprive him of all 
hope of restoration, to the heart at least of some one 
being who can love him in spite of his faults, he 
14 s* 



210 CHAGRIN AND SUICIDE. 

will rush unbidden into the darkness of another 
world, the apprehension of which is less terrible to 
him than the loneliness in which he suffers. So 
common is this catastrophe, that it appears like the 
result of a natural law of the guilty mind, when un- 
acquainted with divine truth, and unsustained by 
the hopeful consciousness of spiritual and eternal 
life. Hence heathenism and infidelity have always 
approved self-murder as the proper remedy of ex- 
treme vexation. 

If we may credit report, it would appear that 
mere animals are also impelled by the same feel- 
ing under similar circumstances : thus it is related 
in the Travels and Adventures of Monsieur Violet, 
the truth of which is avouched by Captain Marry at, 
that he saw horses, that had been tyrannized over 
by other horses, and treated by the whole herd as 
outcasts, commit suicide. When tired of their 
jparia life, they walk round and round some large 
tree, as if to ascertain the degree of hardness re- 
quired, measure their distance, and darting with 
furious speed against it, fracture their skulls, and 
thus get rid of life and oppression together. He 
says that squirrels sometimes persecute one among 
their number till he destroys himself; and he states, 
that " one day while we were watching this outcast 
of a squirrel, we detected a young one slowly 
creeping through the adjoining shrubs; he had in 
his mouth a ripe fruit, at every moment he would 
stop and look if he were watched, just as if he 
feared detection. At last he arrived near the paria, 
or outcast, and deposited before him his offering to 
misery and old age. We watched this spectacle 



CHAGRIN AND SUICIDE. 211 

with feelings which I could not describe : there 
was such a show of meek gratitude on the one side, 
and happiness on the other, just as if he enjoyed 
his good action. They were, however, perceived 
by the other squirrels, who sprung by dozens upon 
them ; the young one with two bounds escaped, 
the other submitted to his fate. I rose. All the 
squirrels vanished except the victim ; but that time, 
contrary to his habits, he left the shrub and slowly 
advanced to the bank of the river, and ascended a 
tree. A minute afterward, we observed him at the 
very extremity of a branch projecting over the rapid 
waters, and we heard his plaintive shriek. It was 
his farewell to life and misery.' * This story will 
serve as a parable expressive of human conduct — 
but one among a multitude runs the risk of showing 
kindness to the outcast, while the rest are bent 
upon driving the wretched to destruction. 

The association between neglect, ill-usage, de- 
spondency, and suicide, is of great practical im- 
portance, especially in relation to those who suffer 
from the terrors of that most awful malady, re- 
ligious despair, which usually commences with 
seclusion, and a state the reverse of self-com- 
placency, conjoined with strong affection insuffi- 
ciently regarded. 

Happy is it if the suicidal catastrophe be avert- 
ed by such a failure of some organ or function of 
the body as shall arrest the ambitious, the way- 
ward, or the lonely spirit even with the stroke of 
death ; but more blessed still to find association 
with calm and loving minds, and, like Kirke 
White, to take admonishment from the uncer- 



212 CHAGRIN AND SUICIDE. 

tainty and comparative worthlessness of this world's 
honors and attachments, to prepare for the untiring 
activities of a nobler state. 

" Come, Disappointment, come ! 
Though from hope's summit hurled, 
Still rigid nurse thou art forgiven, 
For thou severe, wert sent from heaven, 
To wean me from the world ; 
To turn mine eye 
From vanity, 
And point to scenes of life, that never, never die." 

This reference to Kirke White reminds us that 
the influence of the mental state is remarkably ex- 
hibited in the progress of organic diseases. Medi- 
cal practitioners can bear ample testimony to the 
fact, that religious feeling, that is, calm resignation 
to the supreme will, soothes and tranquilizes the 
sufferer's frame more than all medical appliances. 
Often does he witness the triumph of faith over 
bodily affliction, as consumption for instance, with 
slow and fatal hand steals away the life-blood 
from the youth who lately, perhaps in the height 
of moral danger, adorned the drawing-room, or 
bore the palm of academic strife. While in the 
bloom and brilliancy of body and mind, when 
most sensitive and alive to all the passionate 
and beautiful associations of affection and of in- 
tellect, the spoiler stealthily crept in, but pre- 
viously a light from heaven had entered his heart, 
and therefore, while the malady built up the bar- 
rier between time and his spirit, the patient re- 
lied upon the hand that chastened him; he felt 
that pain, and weakness, and weariness, and disap- 
pointment, and death are not fortuitous occur- 



CHAGRIN AND SUICIDE. 213 

rences, but the process by which the wisdom of 
God affects the weaning and separation of the 
believing soul from sin, sorrow, and distracting 
attachments, to fill it forever with intelligence, 
peace, and perfection. Hence, with becoming 
composure, he submitted to the purifying trial of 
his faith, and said, while his features reflected the 
divine love which he contemplated — " Even so, 
Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight." No 
fever of the mind added to the hectic which con- 
sumed his body, and the disease was not only 
better borne, but really much retarded and ame- 
liorated by the " strong consolations" of Christian 
faith. 



CHAPTER VII. 

IRRITABLE BRAIN, INSANITY, ETC. 

Many terrible nervous diseases are but the natu- 
ral disturbance of a bad conscience. Such a 
course of conduct before Grod and man as secure 
approval of heart, will often cure such diseases 
without the aid of a physician. The cordial of 
daily duty, properly fulfilled, is the proper remedy. 
How often have we seen the haggard hypochon- 
driac, both in hut and mansion, cured of all his 
anomalous maladies by a true view of religion and 
by the activity which springs from it. The terrors 
that haunted his darkened spirit have been dissi- 
pated by the light of Heaven; his shaken nerves 
have been tranquilized, and the peace of faith has 
brought new brightness into his eye ; a pleasant 
buoyancy has lifted his heart, and a resistless im- 
pulse of good- will has diffused a healthful vigor 
through every fiber and every feature. So pow- 
erful is the habit of a man's faith on his person, 
that sagacious physicians often correctly infer the 
religious state and persuasion from the patient's 
appearance. 



IRRITABLE BRAIN, ETC. 215 

That bodily disorder which favors the mani- 
festation of the mind in an insane manner may 
be produced by any of our passions, when unre- 
strained by a holy understanding ; the best bless- 
ings may thus be converted into curses — the best 
gifts into the most injurious agents. Some say 
religion is a frequent cause of insanity. No ; true 
religion is the spirit of love, of power, and of a 
sound mind ; ever active in diversified duties and 
delights, always busy in a becoming manner and 
in decent order. But the wild notions, unmeaning 
superstitions, spiritual bondage, unrequired and 
forbidden attempts to reconcile the rites and cere- 
monies which wayward men have substituted for 
the liberty of God, begin in disobedience and end 
in darkness. It is strange fire in the censer which 
brings down the flaming vengeance, and opens a 
passage to the infinite abyss. 

Excessive employment of the body, and that 
anxiety which springs from too earnest a pur- 
suit of our own wills, are, when acting together, 
exceedingly likely to disorder the organism of 
the mental faculties ; and whether one be truly 
religious or only superstitious, the result will 
be the same ; because excess of any kind is 
a direct infringement of the invariable law of 
God. 

Delirium may arise either from mental stimu- 
lants or from mental sedatives, in a weakened and 
wearied state of the brain. In either case the 
same effects follow; as the organization is so dis- 
turbed that it consents not in due order to the 
force, which, in its proper condition, is formed to 



216 IRRITABLE BRAIN, ETC. 

actuate it, namely, the mind. To make a mental 
exertion when the brain is wearied or unduly ex- 
cited, is only to aggravate disorder and endanger 
the fine fabric thus violently acted upon. Thus it 
is that men of mental determination, under the 
force and pressure of urgent business, instead of 
yielding to the indications of weariness, continue 
to work on till delirium takes the place of healthy 
attention. The secretary of an extensive and use- 
ful institution, for instance, suffers from bad health; 
his mind and heart find no rest at home ; at this 
juncture the directors call for accounts and a 
multitude of correspondents are urgent for replies. 
He finds some one of these agents is guilty of 
defalcation. He grows miserable; his digestion 
fails, he appears flushed and hurried, his head 
aches, he can scarcely connect his thoughts, his 
hand trembles, he uses wrong words both in 
speaking and in writing; he retires, and imme- 
diately begins to connect the feeling of his own 
inability to attend to business with the idea of 
robbing his employers, and at length fancies that 
he is the defaulter, by whose case his mind has 
been excited. He thinks himself the guilty per- 
son, and haunted by the worst consequent phan- 
toms, he becomes intolerable to himself, and feels 
as if called on to expiate his crime by destroying 
his life with his own hand. His pious habit still 
prevails, and he executes the horrible deed in 
calm and devout resignation to what he deems the 
will of Heaven. This is a true case, and is no un- 
common result of disobedience to the natural law, 
which insists on our seeking rest when wearied, 



IRRITABLE BRAIN, ETC. 217 

and submitting patiently to infirmity as our daily 
portion. 

All disobedience to the Divine laws, whether 
natural or moral, must, of course, be inevitably fol- 
lowed by suffering and disorder ; nor can any one 
who exposes himself to its causes be exempt, un- 
less by miracle, from insanity or hallucination, as 
long as mind acts through matter, and manifests 
itself in keeping with its condition. 

Remarkable intellectual energy is so often asso- 
ciated with enthusiasm, or intensity of mental char- 
acter and extravagance of conduct, that it has be- 
come a proverb : " Great wit to madness is allied." 
And probably the excessive activity of mind some- 
times springs from actual disorder of brain, although 
the habit and education of the will of the individual 
may enable him so far to control its influence as that 
a degree of disease which, in another worse train- 
ed, might produce decided symptoms of insanity, 
shall, in this case, only prove a powerful stimulus 
to manageable imagination. The susceptibility of 
genius to the excitement of society generally be- 
trays itself in eccentricities, which minds less en- 
dowed regard with amazement ; as if these odd 
traits were some inexplicable mystery and contra- 
diction, instead of the necessary result of the nerv- 
ous tension, to which such morbid beings are con- 
stantly subject. It may appear, at first sight, un- 
reasonable to connect genius with disease, but an 
intimacy with the history of notable men will dem- 
onstrate their relation to each other ; not that they 
are necessarily associated, as cause and conse- 
quence, but that the direct operation of intense 
T 



218 IRRITABLE BRAIN, ETC. 

motives, such as stimulate master minds, leads to 
disorder of the brain, and disorder of the brain re- 
acts to maintain a perverted bias or injurious habit 
of application. Those who are restrained in their 
ambitious or pleasurable pursuits by moral or re- 
ligious principles, are happily preserved from the 
danger of catering to the public appetite for mar- 
velous, monstrous, and startling exhibitions of tal- 
ent; but gifted persons, who submit to the enor- 
mous demand, and ransack the regions of invention 
for new wonders and striking combinations, are 
always running the risk of losing the mastery over 
their own faculties, simply because it is a law of 
the human mental constitution to confirm a chosen 
habit into an absolute necessity; because the brain, 
constantly used in one manner, whether naturally 
or artificially, can not act in any other; but, en- 
thralled by a task-tyrant of its own choice, it works 
on in chains like a galley-slave, and dies early of 
its chosen toil. This effect of habit in determining 
genius accounts for the progress of deception un- 
der the control of designing men of great enthu- 
siasm, such as Mohammed and Joseph Smith, 
the inventor of Mormonism. They began by 
some trick to help themselves, and thus discover- 
ing their power over the simple-minded, they per- 
sisted in deception till they became unable to 
think or act but as deceivers. At length, prob- 
ably, the habit was confirmed by their becoming 
insane converts to their own lies, believing the 
whims of their own imaginations to be the espe- 
cial revelations of Heaven. Like a horse in a mill, 
the mind thus goes round and round in the same 



IRRITABLE BRAIN, ETC. 219 

circle, till it turns blind and incapable of straight- 
forward exertion. Its very dreams are of the 
beaten track. 

An accumulated irritability of brain results from 
incessant effort of mind ; and to such an extent are 
poets subject to this infirmity that they have won 
the cognomen of a distinct race — genus irritabile. 
But all imprudent thinkers are obnoxious to the 
same suffering. Even our great philosopher, New- 
ton, sometimes gave vent to ill-temper or soothed 
his nerves by the bane of tobacco, instead of taking 
rest or appropriate change. And many of our best 
artists, whether in words or more solid materials, 
have been martyrs to head ache and the fashion of 
excitement. Thus Wilkie was often obliged to 
shut himself up in a dark room, because light was 
too stimulant for his brain, and Paganini paid dear- 
ly for his consummate excellence as a musician. 
Speaking to a friend, he stated that he scarcely 
knew what sleep was ; and his nerves were wrought 
to such almost preternatural acuteness, that harsh, 
even common sounds, often became torture to him. 
He was sometimes unable to bear a whisper in his 
room. His passion for music he described as an 
all-absorbing, a consuming one ; in fact he looked 
as if no other life than that ethereal one of melody 
were circulating in his veins ; but he added, with a 
glow of triumph kindling through deep sadness — 
u Mais c'est un don du del"* 

Byron, after an intellectual debauch, was ac- 
customed to mope in total laziness. What this 
intense poet says of himself is very instructive— 
* Mrs. Hemans's Life. 



220 IRRITABLE RRAIN, ETC. 

" I feel a disrelish more powerful than indifference. 
If I rouse, it is into a fury. I presume I shall end 
like Swift — dying at top. But Swift had hardly 
begun life at the very period (thirty-three) when I 
feel quite an old sort of feel. I have been consid- 
ering why I always awake at a certain hour in the 
morning, and always in very bad spirits — I may 
say in actual despair and despondency in all re- 
spects. I have drank fifteen bottles of soda- 
water in one night, after going to bed, and 
still been thirsty. A dose of salts has the ef- 
fect of a temporary inebriation, like light cham- 
pagne, upon me. But wine and spirits make 
me sullen and savage to ferocity; silent, how- 
ever, and retiring, and not quarrelsome if not 
spoken to." 

These facts prove that his genius was associated 
with a diseased brain, of which, indeed, he died ; 
but whether the disease was the result of undue 
mental action, or the cause of it, we need not now 
inquire : it is sufficient to point out the connection. 
Byron is but a strong example of the poetic tem- 
perament, and in many respects of the other orders 
of genius also, - for they are all distinguished by 
extraordinary determination of will; subject, how- 
ever, to paroxysms, like an intermittent fever, a 
succession of cold and hot fits, with healthier inter- 
vals, since the nervous system will not tolerate a 
constant enthusiasm. All violence is but the ex- 
ception to natural order, and the mighty afflatus or 
mental inspiration, which the world so much ad- 
mires, can no more be commanded or expected as 
a matter of course, than can the hurricane or the 



IRRITABLE BRAIN, ETC. 221 

earthquake ; and their continuance is alike de- 
structive. 

Virgil's description of the inspired Pythoness 
presents a glowing picture of the mind's excite- 
ment, kindling the body, for a time, into unnatural 
action, and then leaving it exhausted, and power- 
less, — an effect that equally follows every great, 
enthusiastic, intellectual, or passionate exertion of 
the will. 

" Aloud she cries 
This is the time ! inquire your destinies, 
He comes ! behold the god ! Thus while she said 
(And shivering at the sacred entry staid), 
Her color changed ; her face was not the same, 
And hollow groans from her deep spirit came. 
Her hair stood up ; convulsive rage possessed 
Her trembling limbs, and heaved her laboring heart ; 
Greater than human kind she seemed to look, 
And with an accent more than mortal spoke ; 
Her staring eyes with sparkling fury roll, 
When all the god came rushing on her soul ; 
Swiftly she turned, and foaming as she spoke, 
At length her fury fell ; her foaming ceased, 
And ebbing in her soul the god decreased." 

The common sense of mankind, before the ma- 
terialists extinguished the soul, which gave life 
even to the doctrines of heathens, naturally as 
cribed ail bodily and mental agitations to some 
indwelling spirit, and regarded, visible actions a> v 
the result of invisible agencies, so as always to con- 
nect the physical with the spiritual ; and doubtless, 
therefore, they more firmly realized the fact of 
their immediate relation to an immaterial exist- 
ence. A far more beautiful and ennobling philos- 
ophy was theirs than the mere materialists enjoy, 



222 IRRITABLE BRAIN, ETC. 

because nearer that of divine truth than the notion 
that traces mind no farther than to chemical affini- 
ties, and views the death of the vigilant soul in the 
destruction of its dwelling-place. 

Dr. Wollaston, who was a Christian philosopher, 
died of disease of the brain. He preserved to the 
close of his life the philosophic habit of observation 
which distinguished his character. Sublime is the 
lesson, to see how he exercised the higher faculties 
of his intellect in reasoning on the causes and prog- 
ress of his malady, in the disorder of his sensations, 
memory, and the power of motion, as it advanced 
in its incursion upon one part after another of those 
portions of the brain which subserve the mind in 
relation to will and consciousness. He noted the 
phenomena of death, as it gradually took posses- 
sion of his body, and experimented on his faculties 
to ascertain the amount of living power remaining. 
Here we witness an intelligent being watching the 
gradual destruction of the instruments with which 
it was accustomed to seek and communicate intel- 
lectual enjoyment. The spirit takes its last look 
at its material residence, and seems voluntarily to 
withdraw from an abode so incommodious, while 
reasoning about the causes of its unfitness. Up 
to the very verge of this life's horizon we see that 
the willing and reasoning man remains a willing 
and reasoning being still. Shall we dare to say 
we have traced the footsteps of that man to the 
limit of his being ] As well might we say a star is 
extinguished because it has set to our sight. The 
invisible spirit evinced itself here by using earthly 
elements, and in wise communion with the won- 



IRRITABLE BRAIN, ETC. 223 

ders of creative skill, and its departure was but an 
entrance into existence more in keeping with its 
nature. What the philosopher observed decaying 
was not himself, the observer, and that which died 
was not that which enjoyed life. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

A GENERAL VIEW OP THE EFFECTS OF THE PASSIONS 
ON HEALTH. 

Our passions are the grand conservators as well 
as disturbers of the healthy action of our bodies ; 
and they exercise so direct an influence over the 
functions of life as to be properly classified with 
medicinal agents. Indeed they often act with no 
less power than the most heroic medicines, and are 
as rapid, and sometimes as fatal in their operation, 
as prussic acid or any other deadly poison. A 
brief review of the prominent effects of our passions 
on our bodies will afford a striking illustration of 
the independent existence of the mind, and at the 
same time present a subject of the highest practical 
consideration. Medically speaking, the emotions 
are regarded either as depressing or exciting, — 
sedative or stimulant ; but probably their influence, 
although always acknowledged, is yet too generally 
undervalued in the treatment of disease. 

Hope is the cordial by which our benevolent 
Creator cheers every heart that is not resolutely 
set against the reception of his goodness. A re- 
markable, and consequently often-quoted instance, 
of the curative influence of hope occurred during 



EFFECTS OF THE PASSIONS ON HEALTH. 225 

the siege of Breda, in 1625, when the garrison 
was on the point of surrendering from the ravages 
of scurvy, principally induced by mental depression. 
A few vials of sham medicine were introduced, 
by order of the Prince of Orange, as an infallible 
specific. It was given in drops, and produced as- 
tonishing effects. Such as had not moved their 
limbs for months before were seen walking in the 
streets — sound, straight, and well. 

Not to refer to the long list of pseudo-miracles 
by royal touch, and at the tombs of common saints, 
sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, with the 
cure of every sickness, were said to have been 
conferred on the faithful devotees who flocked to 
the tomb of Abbe Paris, the famous Jansenist; 
and, what is most extraordinary, these cases were 
proved on the spot, before judges of integrity, at- 
tested by witnesses of credit in a learned age (a.d. 
1724), and on the most eminent theater in the 
world. Among a multitude of similar cures, it is 
testified that a hunch-backed girl was kicked and 
trampled into a beautiful shape, by being stretched 
on the ground, while a number of stout men trod 
and jumped with all their might on her stomach 
and ribs. The treatment was in all cases of so 
rough a kind that it required a confidence amount- 
ing to lunacy to submit to it, and the exercise of a 
power as supernatural at least, if not as deceptive, 
as Satan's, in order to survive it. However, as 
Pascal said, " we must believe those who are ready 
to have their throats cut to prove their faith. ,, The 
priests appealed to the remains of their saint in at- 
testation of their own sanctity, and of course mira- 
15 



226 EFFECTS OF THE PASSIONS 

cles followed; and then what more natural than 
that the lame, the halt, and the blind, should, in 
hopeful crowds, surround the wonder-working 
bones of St. Paris I What more natural, except 
that many of them, under the violent persuasion of 
their own desire, and many heavy blows, should 
speedily depart miraculously healed] 

Eloquence is not needed to describe the mighti- 
ness of Hope. She speaks for herself to every 
mortal, and supplies, gratis, to every sufferer a 
well- authenticated universal remedy ; far safer, in- 
deed, without the vaunted vegetables, aloes and 
gamboge, than with them. It may be indulged 
with little risk, which can not be said of wholesale 
Morrisonian pill-taking, nor even of the recent but 
now exploded catholicon brandy and salt, i Hope, 
like an angel, can concentrate her healing virtue in 
a homoeopathic globule, or diffuse it through all the 
multitudinous baths, douches, arid wet bandages 
of hydropathic establishments. Her bright face is 
seen in every stream. If we listen, we hear her 
voice whenever the breath of heaven visits us. 
" Hope, enchanted, smiles and waves her golden 
hair," as she dances before us on the hills and in 
the valleys ; health and laughter are in her steps, 
and while we gaze upon her joyous beauty a lithe-* 
some spirit animates our limbs, and the blooming 
hilarity of her features is reflected from our own. 

Fear is also sometimes curative. The great 
Boerhaave had a number of patients seized with 
epileptic fits in a hospital, from sympathy with a 
person who fell down in convulsions before them. 
This physician was puzzled how to "act, for the 



ON HEALTH. 227 

sympathetic fits were as violent and obstinate as 
those arising from bodily disease ; but, reflecting 
that they were produced by impression on the 
mind, he resolved to eradicate them by a still 
stronger impression, and so directed hot irons to 
be prepared and applied to the first person who 
subsequently had a fit ; the consequence was, that 
not a person was seized afterward. 

An officer in the Indian army was confined to 
his bed by asthma, and could only breathe in an 
erect posture ; but a party of Mahrattas broke into 
the camp, and fearing certain death, he sprung out 
with amazing activity, mounted his horse, and used 
his sword with great execution, although the day 
before he could not draw it from its scabbard. A 
beautiful example of the curative operation of affec- 
tionate apprehension is given by Wordsworth, in 
his singular story of the Idiot Boy. 

Hildanus relates that a man, disguised as a 
ghost, took another laboring under severe gout, 
from his bed, and carried him on his back down 
the stairs, dragging his painful and swollen feet 
down the steps, and placed him on the ground. He 
immediately recovered the use of his limbs, and 
swiftly ran up stairs under the strongest terror, and 
never had the gout again. In these cases fear act- 
ed with all the stimulating force of necessity, which 
is proverbially powerful. 

But the gentler and more pleasing emotions 
sometimes effect the same apparently miraculous 
restoration. The case of an old man, who labored 
under shaking palsy, was related by Mr. Kingdon, 
at the Medical Society of London. This person 



228 EFFECTS OF THE PASSIONS 

had been long unable to walk. The child of a 
friend was admitted to see him, and so greatly de- 
lighted was he that he arose, walked across the 
room, took some paper, went to another part of 
the room, filled the paper with small shells, gave 
it to the child, and then sat down as paralytic as 
before. 

Terror causes the blood suddenly to leave the 
extreme parts of the frame ; the countenace be- 
comes livid, the brain excited, the large arteries 
distended, the heart swells, the eyes start, the mus- 
cles become rigid or convulsed, and faintness, and 
perhaps sudden death, ensue. Fear, whether it be 
from a real or an imaginary object, is equally in- 
fluential on the body. A woman had her gown 
bitten by a dog ; she had heard of hydrophobia, 
and immediately fancied that she had it ; and, what 
is most surprising, she actually died of symptoms 
so like canine madness, that skillful physicians 
could not discover any difference. John Hunter, 
the celebrated anatomist, attributed the disease of 
the heart, of which he ultimately died in a fit of 
anger, to the fear of having caught hydrophobia 
while dissecting the body of a patient who died of 
that disease. Dr. Holland states that a young man 
was so severely affected by the continual intrusion 
of illusory images of a frightful kind, that in a few 
weeks his hair turned from black to white. 

As recollected ideas often follow the same train 
as when first impressed, a lively remembrance of 
past effects is apt to renew the same actions of the 
body. Probably the same state of nerve is again 
produced. Hence the dispositions to repeat ac- 



ON HEALTH. 229 

tions in an accustomed manner. Van Swietan in- 
forms us of a child, being frightened into epilepsy 
by a large dog leaping on it, in whom the fit re- 
turned whenever the dog was heard to bark. Had 
the child been capable of mental effort, the associa- 
tion might perhaps have been broken ; as we find 
that epilepsy is often arrested by diverting the nerv- 
ous power by some strong voluntary action of the 
body, or other determination of the will ; and hence 
too, several popular remedies for this disease exert 
a powerful influence over it, by their effect on the 
imagination ; as that of the hand of a felon, recently 
hanged, applied to the patient's brow while on the 
scaffold. The hand of a murderer, applied while 
hanging from the gibbet, is said to be especially 
efficacious. For the same purpose, Pliny advised 
the blood of a dying gladiator, drank warm, and 
Scribonius Largus directs a portion of his liver to 
be eaten. Aretaeus prefers the raw heart of a coot 
and the brain of a vulture. The nail taken from 
the arm of a crucified malefactor was an efficacious- 
amulet according to Alexander. Not two centu- 
ries since, the authentic remedy among English 
physicians, was the lichen which grew on a decay- 
ing human skull. 

Other nervous disorders are cured on the princi- 
ple of breaking the mental association ; thus cramp 
is cured by rings made from the nails of an old 
coffin, and all sorts of nerve-ache are now within 
reach of art, since the magic galvanic rings of cop- 
per and zinc, a mixture which must have prevailed 
in the constitutions of their inventors, are declared 
to be nothing short of miraculous, but of course 
U 



230 EFFECTS OF THE PASSIONS 

they are intended especially for those who have 
only heard of science. 

There is no doubt, however, that a feeling of 
awe will modify the circulation, and probably the 
mystery-men or medecins of the American Indians, 
with its help, perform cures almost as wonderful 
as those ascribed to Parr's life pills, or any other 
imposing pretension. Hence, also, the potency of 
charms. This feeling of awe seems to partake 
somewhat of the nature of horror, which is demon- 
strated to act powerfully on the blood-vessels, as is 
seen not only in the pallid appearance of individu- 
als suffering from it, but also in the common suc- 
cess of a vulgar remedy for haemorrhage, namely, 
a living toad hung about the neck. The disgusting 
contact almost instantly arrests slight bleedings. 
But, perhaps, this remedy is not more efficacious 
than the^ cold key ; and it certainly is not more in 
demand, and, therefore, it may be presumed not 
more successful among our peasantry than the vil- 
lage blood-stancher, who is generally some shrewd 
old woman that sees a little through her neighbors, 
and is near akin to a witch. She is " great myste- 
ry," as the Indians say, and arrests bleedings by an 
awful xnanner, a muttered, unmeaning prayer, and 
a call for faith. 

Extreme joy and extreme terror act in a man- 
ner equally energetic. Occasionally the exhaustion 
produced by them is so sudden that the nervous 
system seems to be discharged of its power in an 
instant. Culprits have received the tidings of par- 
don, when standing under the gallows, and have 
fallen dead in a moment as by a lightning stroke. 



ON HEALTH. 231 

That most stimulating of the passions, cmger, 
rouses the heart, produces a glow all over the body, 
especially in the face ; causes the eyes to glare ; 
strengthens the voice, and increases the muscular 
power ; hence it has now and then suddenly cured 
gout and palsy, but much more frequently it has 
proved fatal, by rupturing some blood- Vessel. The 
blood, fevered by rage, rushes with delirium over 
the burdened brain ; the heart for a while beats 
■fiercely, but " the acrid bile soon chokes the fine 
ducts;" every vessel is exhausted; the irritability 
ceases ; every muscle shakes ; the whole strength 
is prostrated ; and then, if palsy do not happen, 
obstinate faintings ensue ; then convulsions — then 
death— and the angry man meets his God face to 
face, 

Broussais and other eminent physiologists are of 
opinion that rage is capable of generating a most 
virulent and subtil poison, especially in the saliva. 
They refer to numerous instances in which wounds 
from enraged animals have been followed by effects 
only to be accounted for by supposing a virus com- 
municated. This opinion coincides with vulgar 
belief, and if true, as facts seem to affirm, the pow- 
er of the mind in altering the chemistry of life in a 
direct manner is thus most clearly demonstrated. 
But, indeed, the same fact is equally evinced by 
the common influence of emotion over secretion. 
The classical reader will remember Ovid's fine de- 
scription of Envy. 

M Pallor in ore sedet ; macies in corpore toto ; 
Nusquam recta acies ; livent rubigine dentes : 
Pectora felle virent ; lingua est suffusa venemo." 



232 EFFECTS OF THE PASSIONS 

The description of a well-known disease will not 
be here out of place. It begins with indulgence in 
despondency, then follow loss of appetite, constant 
pain in the stomach, difficulty of breathing, pale- 
ness of the face and palms of the hands, whiteness 
of the tongue with inky spots on it, white lips, and 
inability to move. Then the white of the eye be- 
comes glassy, the skin turns of an olive color and 
cold to the touch, water collects in every part of 
the body, and the sufferer can not breathe, except 
in an erect position. The glands then become in- 
flamed, the liver hardened ; and the blood, poor, 
vapid, and colorless, no longer stimulates the heart, 
and death soon terminates the scene. This is not 
the home-sickness, or nostalgia, which sprung up 
among the Swiss soldiers at the sound of their na- 
tive music, from a passion for home ; and which 
the kindliest associations often failed to cure, with- 
out returning to the hills and valleys, the sights and 
sounds, the domestic enjoyments, and familiar de- 
lights, so endeared to the heart by the strong sym- 
pathies of childhood, as to localize the spirit of the 
man and fill his memory with so delicious a sense 
of what he loved and had lost, that his soul could 
perceive no joy but in home, sweet home ! The 
malady above described is a more violent dis- 
ease of the same kind, and it is dignified by the 
title Cachexia Africana, because, alas ! it has 
killed thousands on thousands of the children of 
Africa, when " forced from home and all its pleas- 
ures." 

Are there not, however, many among us no less 
pitiable, the victims of frivolity, of fashion, of evil 



ON HEALTH. 233 

genius, of anxious and ungodly trade, and of every 
vice; led captive at the will of him who pays 
his slaves for all their toils with grievous pen- 
alty and death, without the hope of home be- 
yond it ? 

The slow fever of anxiety presents the Pro- 
tean symptoms which everywhere obtrude them- 
selves. 

" The broad consumptive plague 
Breathes from the city to the farthest hut." 

And its ravages are miserably visible in the union 
houses, dispensaries, and hospitals of our land. 
Every madhouse also furnishes instances of its 
effects ; and, moreover, strangely presents the most 
terrible examples of remorse and religious despair; 
proving that Christianity is often taught by mis- 
taken men rather as a system of terror than as 
good news of gracious forgiveness to all those who 
faithfully repent. 

Fear and anxiety affect all the functions of the 
body, but especially of the stomach. They seem 
to suppress the secretion of the fluid on which 
digestion depends, and also arrest the flow of sa- 
liva. A curious illustration of this fact is afforded 
in the method which the conjurers in India some- 
times adopt for detecting theft among servants. 
When a robbery has been committed a conjurer 
is sent for, and great preparations are made. If 
in a few days the property be not restored, he pro- 
ceeds with his mysterious operations, one of which 
is as follows : — The suspected are all required to 
masticate a quantity of boiled rice for some time, 
and then to spit it upon separate leaves for in- 
u* 



234 EFFECTS OF THE PASSIONS 

spection. He examines the masticated rice very 
knowingly, and immediately points out the culprit ; 
the rice which he masticated being perfectly dry, 
while that which was masticated by the others is 
moistened by saliva. 

Deferred and fruitless longing for a beloved 
object is a frequent malady which often tends to 
produce a remarkable deterioration of the blood, 
thus of course impairing the function of every 
organ. As the nervous system is most susceptible, 
the evil is first revealed by distressing nervous 
sensations. All periods and all conditions of life 
are liable to this disease ; but the more artificial 
the society the more prevalent the malady ; that 
being considered the most natural society in which 
the natural affections are most suitably engaged. 
The prosperous fulfillment of our proper desires 
is not only the best preservation of the joys of re- 
lationship and the blessings of the social compact, 
but the best security for the health of bod} and of 
mind, both in parent and offspring ; for the state 
of the blood, on which health mainly depends, is 
influenced almost as much by our feelings as by 
our food. 

The grand straggle of the multitude is excited 
neither by ambition nor covetousness ; nor that 
nicer torment, a morbid love of approbation, which 
racks the sensitive genius ; nor by the delirium 
of an entrancing affection, nor by the tyranny of 
grosser passion ;— but the common aim of the 
majority in their daily toil, is rather for means to 
sustain a bare and comfortless existence. The 
weariness of the scarcely successful effort is visible 



ON HEALTH. 235 

in almost every face. The vast increase of heart 
and nervous diseases arises from the distracting 
excitement and stretch of mind which now pre- 
vails throughout society, especially in large cities, 
where great competition exists, and where an un- 
certain commerce furnishes a precarious support, 
and wealth and pride too often take mean advan- 
tages of laborious poverty. 

The votaries of pleasure are scarcely more ex- 
posed to the causes of mental disquietude than 
the devotees of Mammon, and both alike waste 
the energies of life in excitement, and alike suffer 
the penalty of breaking those laws which natu- 
rally regulate the uses both of mind and body. 
The gambling spirit as constantly haunts the ex- 
change and corn-market as the play- table ; and, 
by perplexing and distracting the mind, soon 
saps the basis of health and anticipates old age. 
Hence, in large commercial towns, we often wit- 
ness, even in persons who have barely reached the 
middle period of life, the haggard face, sunken 
eye, hoary hair, and feeble gait, which properly 
belong to " wearied eld." Nor can the results 
be surprising to those who reflect that anxiety is 
but a chronic kind of fear ; a sort of intermittent 
fever or ague, which as manifestly disorders the 
circulation and secretions as that which arises from 
the poisonous malaria of the marshes, and which 
is scarcely more deadly than that of the market, in 
these days of desperate speculation and grasping 
monopoly. 

As Syrach says, " Sorrow also killeth many 
people, and melancholy consumeth marrow and 



236 EFFECTS OF THE PASSIONS 

bone." "We have all heard of those who have be- 
come 

"Gray-haired with anguish in a single night." 

But that is but a small part of the bodily evidence 
of mental agony. 

Grief has a very marked influence over the cir- 
culation ; probably by its direct action on the 
heart, which may be so violently affected as really 
to break, not metaphorically but physically. Pro- 
longed distress of mind invariably produces a great 
preponderance of the venous over the arterial 
blood; hence there arises a general feebleness. 
We are assured, on the testimony of their medical 
attendants, that convicts frequently die of broken 
hearts, and it requires more than ordinary care 
and skill to restore them to any degree of health, 
if once attacked by illness; as the absence of hope, 
especially among those transported for life, causes 
them to sink rapidly, whatever be the disease. 
They seldom recover, or, if partially restored, it is 
only to relapse from the slightest circumstances, 
and such as would not in the least affect persons 
enjoying liberty and hope. 

Strong emotion often produces the germ of 
disease, which for a long time may not become 
apparent. The majority of what are called nerv- 
ous diseases are probably of this class. Some 
grief, like a thorn at the heart, as Hippocrates 
says, by its secret and incessant irritation gradu- 
ally wears out the vital energy. Some vulture 
preys upon almost every heart, and it needs not 
the pride and ambition of a Napoleon, fastened 
to the lonely rock, to feel its gnawings, for dis- 



ON HEALTH. 237 

appointment as keenly follows every intense and 
absorbing passion. 

Every part of the body testifies to the potency of 
emotions over the organism of life, though the phys- 
iologist may not always detect their effects in visible 
lesions or alterations. Tiie first causes, or earliest 
physical impressions of disorder, are indeed beyond 
fbe ken of the dissector. In vain he searches into 
minute anatomy for the cause of functional de- 
rangement ; it must be sought among agents which 
he can not handle. An idea has frequently force 
enough to prostrate the strongest man in a moment. 
A word has blasted all his dearest, fondest, most 
habitual hopes. His only child has died — the part- 
ner of his life is snatched away ; — he has but heard 
it; nothing has touched his body, but the "iron 
has entered his soul." He reels — he trembles — 
some demon grasps his brain — sleep is gone — he 
dares not look at the light. A dull pain and a 
heavy cloud fix themselves over his eyes, and if 
the efforts of nature and art are unavailing, or if 
the balmy spirit of religion breathe not healing 
through his soul, and speedily bind up the broken 
heart, some fatal malady of the brain more or less 
rapidly ensues, and the man of energy and affec- 
tion becomes an outcast from society till death re- 
leases his spirit. 

Next to the brain the stomach suffers from con- 
tinued mental distress. The appetite fails ; diges- 
tion is suspended; atrophy succeeds, and perhaps 
some nerve-ache racks the sufferer. Sometimes 
pulmonary consumption, or disease of the heart, 
the liver, or the bowels, is induced. The secre- 



238 EFFECTS OF THE PASSIONS 

tions are, of course, proportionally affected. Thus 
the milk of a nurse is often entirely suppressed by 
mental disquietude. Hence a nervous, excitable 
woman is hardly fit to suckle her own children ; 
for the fluid that should nourish her infant under- 
goes so many changes, from the mother's mental 
variations, as greatly to distress the child, and per- 
haps even to destroy it. Ninety-eight out of a hun- 
dred deaths from convulsions are of children, thus 
proving them to be especially liable to this disor^ 
der ; and as the majority die in early infancy, it is 
not unlikely that the state of the mother's mind 
may be the secret cause of this unnatural mor- 
tality. 

Under mental depression the nervous energy be- 
comes exhausted, the conservative power of nature 
is wanting, and the body is rendered especially ob- 
noxious to external influences. 

Captain Ross, in the narrative of his arctic voy- 
age, particularly alludes to the circumstance of 
mental depression increasing susceptibility to cold. 
The disastrous retreat from Moscow also affords a 
striking and extensive instance. This kind of sus- 
ceptibility to " the skyey influences'' is most mark- 
ed, but it equally exists in other forms; thus those 
who are depressed by any cause are most likely to 
take contagious diseases. 

Now look at him who is emphatically the miser : 
that is the wretch. He seems as if all his affec- 
tions had been congealed by a dip in Lethe, as Dr. 
M. Good observes. Yet some demon of anxiety, 
some cunning fiend, sits like a nightmare on his 
bosom and will not let him sleep, while whispering 



ON HEALTH. 239 

in his ear of robberies and of destitution. No cor- 
dial cheers — no wealth makes him comfortable — 
he grows thinner and thinner — his limbs totter and 
his nerves ache. Even if the charitable, whom he 
cheats, consent to feed him, though in the home of 
plenty, he can not gather strength ; his soul starves 
him. This poor, pitiable being has been the sub- 
ject of sarcasm/ from age to age ; but many who 
laugh and point the finger at him are doubtless his 
descendants, for they bear a strong family like- 
ness in their features, even to him of whom Va- 
lerius Maximus relates, that he took advantage 
of a famine to sell a mouse for two hundred 
pence, and then died famished, with the money in 
his pocket. 

Duty to our neighbor, our country, and our 
God, requires us to be diligent in business and 
fervent in spirit. With a right motive, we shall 
find our utmost efforts to be healthy and happy; 
but are there not many, however, who ask not 
with a mockery of prayer for their daily bread, 
until they have plotted some scheme upon their 
beds by which they may file a fortune from the 
wages of industry, or cheat their less crafty breth- 
ren of some part of their due portion % How can 
these be healthy ] Perhaps it is possible that such 
contrivers may be rubicund in their success, but it 
is more likely that the money-mania will at last 
absorb all the cheering springs of kindly sympa- 
thy, and leave them weak and weary in the dry 
desert of their selfishness, — their whole being a 
disease. 

This is a common termination of a vicious course, 



240 EFFECTS OF THE PASSIONS ON HEALTH. 

whatever form of selfishness the vice assume ; for 
vice is always selfish, and, therefore, apt to be in- 
creasingly anxious and wretched, till habit dries 
the heart up in despair. 



CHAPTER IX. 



SYMPATHY. 



Sympathy is the natural check which the Al- 
mighty puts upon uncharitable self. In spite of 
themselves, there are few who have not felt com- 
passion for others. This affords a beautiful proof 
both of the beneficence of our Maker, and of the 
power of mind over the body. 

Pity, like love, imparts a sedate tenderness to the 
carriage, and if it can not be relieved, the face be- 
comes pale and wan, the appetite fails, and the 
slumber is invaded with frightful dreams, and thus 
a broken heart from pity as from grief is no fiction. 

Mr. Quain detailed the following case of sympa- 
thy at the Westminster Medical Society. A gen- 
tleman who had constantly witnessed the sufferings 
of a friend afflicted with stricture of the sesophagus, 
had so great an impression made on his nervous 
system, that after some time he experienced a sim- 
ilar difficulty of swallowing, and ultimately died of 
the spasmodic impediment produced by merely 
thinking of another's pain. 

A curious and interesting effect of pathetic feel- 
ing is the production of tears, which are never gen- 
erated but by sorrow or sympathy. There is a 
particular nerve supplying that part which causes 
16 X 



242 SYMPATHY. 

the formation of tears, and it seems to be naturally 
stimulated only by the suffering of the mind. It is 
commonly observed that deep grief is apt to be 
dangerous if the brain be not relieved by tears ; in 
fact, it indicates that the blow has been so severe 
as to paralize that part of the nervous system which 
causes them to flow. Hence we so often hear lam- 
entations from the wounded heart that it can ob- 
tain no relief from its overwhelming sorrow, be- 
cause the fountain of tears seems dried up. 

There is a form of sympathy which compels us 
to imitate what we witness in others. This ten- 
dency is greatly aggravated under certain circum- 
stances, as when persons are secluded from the do- 
mestic and social duties of life. Thus a French 
medical practitioner of great merit relates, that, in 
a convent of nuns, one of the fair inmates was 
seized with a strange impulse to mew like a cat, 
and soon the whole sisterhood followed her exam- 
ple, and mewed regularly every day for hours to- 
gether. This diurnal caterwauling astounded the 
neighborhood, and did not cease to scandalize more 
rational Christians, until the nuns were informed 
that a company of soldiers were to surround the 
convent, and to whip all the holy sisterhood with 
rods till they promised to mew no more : a reme- 
dy which would be equally serviceable in many 
other mental epidemics. 

Cardan relates that, in another nunnery, a sis- 
ter was impelled to bite her companions, and this 
disposition also spread among the sisterhood; but 
instead of being confined to one nunnery, it spread 
from cloister to cloister throughout the whole of 



SYMPATHY. 248 

Europe. There is a kind of biting mania, not con- 
fined to nunneries or to the fair sex, and which 
may often be witnessed in almost every coterie ; it 
is backbiting ; a malignant sort of insanity, which 
spreads worse than the plague, and disorders alike 
the body and the mind, both collectively and indi- 
vidually. 

Morbid and imitative sympathy is scarcely less 
powerful among men than women, but it usually 
takes a different form in the different sexes : a good 
example has already been given in the case of epi- 
leptic fits. 

The dancing mania of the fourteenth century in- 
fected men almost as readily as women. We have 
but to witness a congregation of Jumpers at their 
devotions, or even a mob of senseless partisans at 
a stoutly-contested election, to be convinced that 
the contagion of sympathy finds the presence of the 
lordly sex no barrier to its extension. The evils 
of this kind of contagion, in connection with irra- 
tional enthusiasm, whether excited by true religion 
or by delusive assumptions, are of a nature to de- 
mand our most serious consideration, because the 
interests of truth are often sacrificed in consequence 
of confounding her accidental with her constant 
effects. In 1800, a blaze of apparently religious 
enthusiasm spread with great velocity through 
many parts of the United States. It began in a 
crowded congregation, who were rendered pecu- 
liarly susceptible by extreme fatigue and ignorance. 
After remaining in the same spot day and night, 
instead of worshiping, they commenced crying 
laughing, singing, and shouting, with every variety 



244 SYMPATHY. 

of convulsive contortion and gesticulation. They 
continued to act from necessity whatever character 
they had assumed from choice, and the disease ex- 
tended in every direction with vast rapidity, as an 
affected person frequently communicated it to the 
greater part of a crowd collected by curiosity around 
him. 

Children are more especially liable to this sort 
of sympathy, of which instances must be familiar to 
every reader. The fact, however, is of vast import- 
ance in connection with the training of children, as 
a single evil example may counteract all our teach- 
ing. The imitative propensity is frequently exhib- 
ited in the diseases of children. A writer in the 
British and Foreign Medical Review states that he 
was consulted respecting a child who, when spoken 
to, instead of answering, always repeated what was 
said. Degrees of this disease are very common. 
The same writer mentions a case, elsewhere pub- 
lished, in which an adult had from infancy irresisti- 
bly imitated all the muscular movements of those 
about him. When this dotterel-like propensity 
was forcibly restrained, he complained that his 
heart and brain were vexed. 

It is this imitative tendency which favors the 
rapid propagation of fanatic outrage, whether po- 
litical or religious, whether of Jumpers or of Jan- 
senists. But, happily, the susceptibility of those 
who so readily submit to outward impressions, and 
yield their souls to the government of transitory 
impulses instead of abiding principles, furnishes in 
itself a check to their extravagance, since some 
new form of such folly is ever presenting itself, and 



SYMPATHY. 245 

their nervous systems are ever open to fresh sym- 
pathies ; so that succeeding excitements destroy 
each other, and error, always imitating and never 
self-possessed, assumes, as many shapes as the father 
of lies himself — " every thing by turns, but nothing 
long." Truth alone is qualified to settle, compose, 
and establish the form of society, and to hold as 
well as to obtain universal dominion over the 
minds and bodies of mankind. We are naturally 
organized in sympathy rather with the holy than 
the evil ; as we see that children, not infected by 
bad example, always love the good and beautiful. 
"We may, therefore, believe that when society shall 
be more imbued with the practical spirit of truth, 
each succeeding generation shall sympathetically, 
as well as from conviction, exhibit more perfectly 
the beauties of individual and social obedience to 
divine law, which is the proper basis of education, 
and requires all the superstructure to be conform- 
ed to its outline. Instruction in all knowledge 
and action will be successful only in proportion as 
rule and example are divested of the disguises with 
which men have concealed Truth, the most persua- 
sive and engaging of all teachers, because really the 
sole mistress of our constitutional sympathies. 

We are governed by appearances, and we seem 
intuitively to act upon this principle ; and, without 
intending it, we express the pleasure we feel and 
desire to convey by meeting our friend with a con- 
stant smile. The outward signs of passion and 
emotion, which are so wonderfully expressed in 
every attitude and feature, constitute the language 
of the soul, the bond of interest and union between 



246 SYMPATHY. 

mind and mind. Men are qualified to influence 
others just in proportion as they are gifted with the 
power of feeling lofty emotions and of expressing 
them with anatomical precision, and appropriate 
compass of face, of voice, and of action. Hence 
the success of the actor's or the orator's art de- 
pends on the facility with which his nerves and 
muscles assume a truthfulness of expression in the 
imbodiment of feeling, which, indeed, can never 
be fully and satisfactorily accomplished without an 
actual participation, in some degree, of the passion 
represented ; for the effort to imitate will every 
now and then be manifest where the feeling does 
not somewhat animate the gesture and expression. 
The best actors, therefore, are those that are least 
like actors, and it is a fact that such as have been 
most successful on the stage have often been near- 
ly unconscious of acting, in their realizing concep- 
tion of the scene in which they placed themselves 
and the characters they have assumed. Thus real 
tears are not uncommon with a good tragedian, 
nor is hearty laughter with a comic actor. Preach- 
ers might here learn a useful lesson. It is in vain 
for a man to endeavor to persuade others till he 
has persuaded himself 1 He can not convince his 
audience that he is influenced by emotion unless 
they see it ; which they can not while he is merely 
endeavoring to imitate the action that belongs to 
emotion, instead of feeling what he speaks. Real 
hypocrites are really poor orators, and they are 
always ready to suspect more successful persuaders 
of more art than themselves, whereas they have only 
more nature active within them. The unfeeling 



SYMPATHY. 247 

preacher egregiously fails, and so does he, howev- 
er feeling, who imitates others instead of express- 
ing himself. If, however, he suitably contemplate 
the subject or passion that he would describe, and 
make an effort to regard it steadfastly, he will at 
length be moved by it as he would by a living ex- 
ample of the passion or subject before his face ; for 
he can not fix his attention sufficiently on a subject 
not interesting to him. His own sympathies will 
thus be roused, and he will also rouse others almost 
to the extent of his own enthusiasm, if his power 
of language correspond with his feeling, which it 
generally will. This want of actual emotion in the 
speaker causes the sublimest truths and the most 
thrilling relations of great facts to fall lifelessly 
from the lips, so that the sentences uttered come 
forth like wreaths of sleepy mist instead of living 
forms of light. 

Those who are most commanding among orators 
do not appear to be so much addressing their au- 
dience as to be contemplating and expressing some 
subject of vast interest to themselves, and which 
inspires their very souls and features with language 
and significance, like a Pythoness. It is this kind 
of inspiration with which an audience is most en- 
thralled, as those can testify who have heard such 
men as Robert Hall. But the force and fervor of 
the possessing influence must be visible in the coun- 
tenance, as well as heard in the intonations of the 
voice. The kindling eye, especially, must speak. 

The features, when excited, are so nicely ex- 
pressive of the variations in mental emotion, that 
by looking on them we at once read the state of 



248 SYMPATHY. 

the mind in which the individual appears before 
us, unless, indeed, he artfully conceal himself; but 
even then constraint will be visible. 

The skill of the painter is most highly evinced 
by his seizing the evanescent play of feeling, which 
though unstable as a ray of light upon the trem- 
bling water, yet in a moment reveals the emotion 
of the soul ; and it is the exquisite accordancy be- 
tween this index and the intelligence that moves 
it, which characterizes the man of eloquent features, 
and imparts, with the addition of appropriate lan- 
guage and utterance, an almost supernatural fas- 
cination to the gifted orator. Even without the 
auxiliaries of living energy, tone, and language, the 
actions of the muscles of the face and eyes are so 
marvelously fashioned to respond to the touch of 
passion on the nerves, and so completely calculated 
to excite our sympathy, that the features even of a 
dead man may be automatically played upon by 
galvanism, so that spectators shall feel their sensi- 
bilities uncontrollably disturbed. Dr. Ure relates 
an instance in which rage, horror, despair, anguish, 
and ghastly smiles united their hideous expression 
in the face of a murderer lately executed, in a 
manner surpassing the wildest representations of a 
Fuseli or a Kean. So powerful was the effect that 
several of the spectators were forced to leave the 
room from terror, and one gentleman fainted. 

The missionary martyr, Williams, gives a good 
example of the power of acting, in exciting sym- 
pathy. During the lanching of a ship by the 
natives of Eimeo, an old warrior stood on a little 
eminence to animate the men at the ropes. " His 



SYMPATHY. 249 

action was most inspiring. There seemed not a 
fiber of his frame which he did not exert ; and, 
merely from looking at him, I felt as though I was 
in the very act of pulling.' ' 

Young children are strongly affected by facial 
expression, and they learn the features of passion 
long before they learn any other part of its lan- 
guage. Their imitative faculties are so active, 
and their sympathies so acute, that they uncon- 
sciously assume the expression of face which they 
are accustomed to see and feel. Hence the im- 
portance that children be habituated to kindliness, 
beauty, and intellect, in those with whom they are 
domesticated. Even their playthings and pictures 
should be free from depraved meaning and violent 
expression, if we wish them to be lovely ; and all 
the hideous, grotesque, and ludicrous portraiture, 
which now vulgarize the public mind, should be 
excluded from the nursery. The gothic and su- 
perstitious condition of mind will return with the 
prevalence of pictorial deformities, and the demand 
for the unnatural will increase with the continu- 
ance of degraded art ; for which deforming epi 
demic there can be no remedy, but in familiarizing 
the common mind with nobler objects. 



CHAPTER X. 

SOLITUDE. 

It is by sympathy with each other that minds 
become either corrupted or improved; and how- 
ever advantageous occasional solitude may be for 
the purpose of familiarizing the mind with its own 
actings, and however necessary it may be for the 
arrest of pernicious associations, still it is not by 
solitude, but by mind acting on mind, through the 
living medium of sight, sound, and touch, that 
erroneous humanity is led to right thinking. Where 
shall it find a pathway out of the mysterious desert 
of its temptations, while left alone or without a 
companion, except the tempter % It was in the 
separation of those whom God had joined together 
that the serpent beguiler was first able to triumph ; 
and when a human being is alone, that evil spirit 
still haunts him with the likeliest hope of conform- 
ing the soul to his own purposes. 

Without suitable response to his social desires, 
the mind of fallen man will conjure up a thousand 
beings to converse with its thoughts, and to give 
sentiment and language even to inanimate objects. 
All the world is alive to man's imagination. Hence 
the solitudes of the wilderness, where the Indian 



SOLITUDE. 251 

wanders alone, are peopled by him with spirits ; 
and hence, too, haunted places abound in the tra- 
ditions of thinly populated districts, among those 
people whose business requires them to pass much 
time in solitary walks and watchings among hills 
and valleys, where no sound of human association 
breaks the monotony of speechless existence. The 
Indian saying is true, " Fast in the wilderness and 
dream of spirits. " This superstitious tendency is 
equally manifested, whatever the nature of the soli- 
tude, that is, if the mind be developed, and has not 
previously been imbued with truth and holiness. 
The maddening terrors of young criminals who 
are confined to solitary cells, is thus to be ex- 
plained. 

Probably the solitude of stone walls is the most 
terrible of desolations ; for living nature, however 
wild, will suggest some thought of a benevolent 
and protecting spirit. But when vice is doomed 
to the dungeon, to hear no voice save that of a 
guilty conscience, and to see no smile but the 
ghastly smile of despair, what kind of superstition 
can there enter but that which makes visible the 
darkness of hell, and prompts the madman to seek 
refuge from his tormentors in self-murder. An 
author, of no common power and sagacity, tells 
us that, when at New York, he visited the prison 
where they cany out the solitary system, and 
held the following brief and significant conversation 
with the turnkey. 

" Pray why do they call this place the Tombs V 9 

" Well, it's the cant name." 

" I know it is. Why V 



252 SOLITUDE. 

" Some suicides happened here when it was first 
built. I expect it come about from that." 

I saw just now that the man's clothes were 
scattered about the floor of his cell. " Don't you 
oblige prisoners to be orderly, and put such things 
away ]." 

" Where should they put 'em V 9 

" Not on the ground, surely : what do you say 
to hanging them up V 9 

He stops and looks around to emphasize the 
answer : " Why, I say that's just it. When they 
had hooks they would hang themselves, so they 
are taken out of every cell, and there's only the 
marks left where they used to be !" 

The isolation of a human spirit is worse than 
death, for the author of humanity has constituted 
it for intercourse, and everywhere in nature has 
provided it with scope and occasion to receive and 
communicate impulses of affection and of thought. 
Even in hell there is companionship. Evil spirits 
are attracted to each other, and are permitted to 
know so much of mercy as to wander even in 
legions together. They associate in their misery 
and their mischief, but man has invented a new 
mode of punishment and destruction, by imprison- 
ing his wayward and ignorant brother in a tomb : 
" a breathing man gifted with voice and hearing 
is built up in a silent, solitary sepulcher of stone," 
as if to bury his very soul ; since there the pulse 
of another heart may not beat, and there the 
lonely spirit, thus cut off from the enjoyment of 
its own faculties, is tormented to madness by the 
clash of thoughts and passions without aim or 



SOLITUDE. 253 

object. The improvement of even a wise man 
without any other fellowship than his own reflec- 
tion is impossible. He may arrange his knowl- 
edge and devise new schemes, but his heart is 
never the better, unless busied for the benefit of 
others, or, talking as it were with angels, he 
learns of them, or at least is roused by fellowship 
with feelings that neither originate nor terminate 
in self. If then the man accustomed to secluded 
meditation gains no moral progress or advance- 
ment but in the interchange of mind with mind, 
are we to expect the miserable being, who perhaps 
by his very criminality has demonstrated that he 
is so uncontrollably excited by association, so mas- 
tered by his passions that his own safety is of 
small moment in comparison with the pleasure of 
pleasing his associates, — are we to expect such a 
being to be conducted into right thinking, feel- 
ing, and acting, without another mind to approve, 
direct, and encourage him in his aspirations after 
a higher place in the scale of moral existence I 
What is needed in such a case is surely a friend, 
— one with a heart and soul, capable of appreci- 
ating the value of a redeemed and immortal spirit, 
of proving a true Christian devotedness to the 
service of a sinful man, and of loving him in 
hope of what he may be hereafter. Thus will he 
be drawn, if at all, by the mighty gentleness of 
heaven's charity, to follow in sympathy, love, and 
veneration, from the depths of vicious debasement 
even to the gates of heaven, and into its very 
glory. It is kindness that wins the heart. Hence 
the apostolic exhortation — "Be followers of God, 
Y 



254 SOLITUDE. 

as dear children." Captain Sir W. E. Parry, 
commenting on these words, observes : " there is 
perhaps nothing even in the whole compass of 
Scripture more calculated to awaken contrition in 
the hardest heart than the Parable of the Prodigal 
Son. I knew a convict in New South Wales, in 
whom there appeared no symptom of repentance, 
in other respects, but who could never hear a ser- 
mon or comment on this parable without bursting 
into an agony of tears, which I witnessed on 
several occasions. Truly he who spoke it knew 
what was in man." 

Rational retirement is impossible to the irre- 
ligious mind. Such a mind perceives not the 
proper relation of any thing, and dares not dwell 
alone for the purpose of contemplation ; for all it 
can feel in solitude is the necessity of keeping up 
courage by some effort, like a school-boy at night 
among the tombs. The spontaneous phantasma- 
goria of the vigilant and guilty spirit rise like un- 
accountable goblins, unless such a one is busy 
with his senses. Solitude is therefore terror and 
madness to the uninformed ; but let a man be 
suitably instructed and furnished with the proper 
means of happy mental occupation, and then occa- 
sional seclusion will soothe and elevate his spirit. 
Retirement from the world is indeed the way to 
heaven, and it is when the soul is alone in the 
agony of its heavy necessities that God and the 
Son of God visit it with salvation. The separation 
of man from all his sympathies is death ; and soli- 
tude is fit for man only when man is fit for fellow- 
ship with God. But yet the Almighty has insti- 



SOLITUDE. 255 

tuted separation in the dying hour, only to conduct 
the retiring and confiding spirit to the socialities of 
a sublimer life. 

The deadening influence of silent confinement is 
of course most rapidly destructive to the powers 
of both mind and body in youth, at which period 
nature is active with no other purpose but pleasure 
and development. These being suddenly arrested, 
the mental faculties, as well as the limbs, become 
useless. If not speedily emancipated, the child 
thus unnaturally treated, will soon be found both 
an idiot and a cripple. Such a process is like re- 
ducing an expanded human being to the state of 
Caspar Hauser, who, being concealed from his in- 
fancy in a small cellar, there grew to the stature of 
a young man, with less of bodily activity, and less 
of appearance of mind, than a child at its mother's 
breast. " The life of his soul could be compared 
only to the life of an oyster, which, adhering to its 
rock, is sensible of nothing but the absorption of 
its food, and perceives only the eternal, uniform 
dashing of the waves, and in its narrow shell finds 
no room even for the most confined idea of a world 
without it, still less of any thing above the earth, 
and above all worlds." Yet this interesting youth, 
under the benevolent, but very defective teaching 
of kindly associations, afterward manifested such 
exquisite delicacy of intellect, conjoined with such 
pure and beautiful blendings of affection, that those 
who could best read the character of his soul most 
tenderly loved him. 

Children become idiots in continued solitary con- 
finement, but adults more frequently become either 



256 SOLITUDE. 

suicides or madmen ; because, in the former, there 
is the absence of guilty habit, but the will in the 
latter had been long perverted, and bent upon the 
attainment of some specific object, in which they 
promised themselves especial pleasure. Even self- 
amendment, and escape from the misery of their 
guilty course had often been hoped for as an end, 
with many of the worst inmates of our prisons ; 
when, therefore, such wretched men are deprived 
of the most distant expectation of being in any way 
respected or beloved, it is no wonder they become 
insane. 

Man, in constant banishment from fellowship, is 
almost beyond the reach of hope, and in proportion 
as he is without hope, he is without the natural 
stimulus and inducement to self-correction. A hu- 
man being so situated is already in the position of 
a melancholy madman. The one is deprived of 
all hope of enjoyment by disease, the other by his 
fellow-man ; and in both cases, the end can only be 
entire loss of intellect, or else suicide ; for the brain 
and nerves are robbed of their proper stimuli, and 
the body becomes the pregnant source of agonizing 
sensations. 

It is by activity that our faculties are preserved 
as well as developed, and their proper action is 
always- agreeable. Life, in fact, is not properly 
maintained, unless in some measure pleasurable. 
A feeling of unfitness for life always seizes the 
heart that is robbed of hope, and whenever despair 
gets possession, the soul desires death, and strug- 
gles for oblivion. There can be no spontaneous 
remedy in our disordered nature for the terrors of 






SOLITUDE. 257 

guilt, but if we possess a true faith, despair appears 
impossible. Belief in God, as He is, not according 
to this mode or that, but simply as our God for- 
ever, is the only cure for every thorough heart- 
trouble. 

17 Y* 



CHAPTER XL 

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PASSIONS. 

We can not doubt that, as the life of this flesh 
hangs on a breath, so the power of controlling 
thought hangs on some delicate arrangement of 
atoms, with which the soul is so connected as to 
move it, and to be moved by it. The difference 
between the sublimest philosopher and the most 
groveling idiot, in regard to the exhibition and en- 
joyment of intellect, is, as far as we can discover, 
but the difference in their respective organization, 
and its state of health. This humbling view ought 
to cure us of intellectual conceit ; for who dares 
despise his brother's understanding, when he reflects 
that the Divine mind will hereafter judge us not for 
lack of power, but for its abuse ; not according to 
what we have not, but according to what we have ; 
and will distribute new endowments as each may 
have employed the capacity he held. The decisive 
crisis is but a result. How silly, then, is that com- 
mon adulation of talent which regards not moral 
principle, and values the play of wit more than a 
Godlike will, although this is indeed the only true 
dignity of our nature. What mere cant of bigotry 
and carping criticism must that be, which would 



GOVERNMENT OF THE PASSIONS. 259 

alike depress all minds to their own low, dull, flat, 
unprofitable level of formality, as if the diversified 
workmanship of the Infinite could all be trimmed 
into the same shape by conceited man. As well 
may we endeavor to reduce creation to a monotony, 
as to bring all minds to perceive and act in the 
same manner. The spirit of each must vary as 
much from all others in power and intelligence, as 
the material medium, through which it works, must 
differ from all others in construction and circum- 
stances. 

The body is only a convenient form which the 
spirit uses, and we have the highest authority for 
believing that many spirits may occupy and em- 
ploy the same body. Nor can we discover any 
thing in nature that renders it difficult to credit 
this fact. Some persons, with most unphilosophi- 
cal audacity, have, however, denied its possibility, 
but, at least, it behooves them first to prove that they 
understand the mode of spiritual existence and 
operation, before they contradict the literal force 
of the New Testament, from which we learn that, 
if we use not our bodies according to divine law, 
they will he employed by other spirits to dishonor 
and destruction. But in no circumstances in which 
the moral integrity of the soul can be tried, does it 
necessarily succumb to the seductions of the body, 
nor, with right knowledge and reliance, to the per- 
suasions of perverse spirits. 

" Who reigns within himself and rules 
Passions, desires, and fears, is more than king." — Milton. 

But how are our passions to be governed, ex- 
cept by a dominant principle or attachment to 



260 GOVERNMENT OF THE PASSIONS. 

some mighty truth, by which the will may be rec- 
tified, and nobler purpose be substituted for inferior 
desire. Superior motives are addressed to every 
understanding. Our Maker has implanted detect- 
ing conscience, self-respect, and social affections, 
in every mind elevated above the physical curtail- 
ments of idiotism. The passions, then, are the 
elements of our moral nature ; they can not be 
destroyed without our own destruction. 

The suspension of their influence is the sus- 
pension of consciousness. It is only by the con- 
sent of our wills that they are excited into disorder, 
and only by our obedience to the laws which our 
conscience acknowledges are our passions brought 
to act in harmony. They must be placed in their 
proper relations to their objects, before the per- 
fection of their purpose can be demonstrated : and 
as wisely might we say that disease and tempest 
frustrate divine wisdom, as impugn the Almighty 
because our moral being is liable to disturbance. 
Disorder must yet glorify the God that called light 
out of darkness. He will vindicate Himself by 
teaching the sinful soul in felt weakness to depend 
on Omnipotence, and to derive motive, encourage- 
ment, and means, to rise above all merely human 
affections, by submitting to the beauty and attract- 
iveness of divine example. It needs only the 
superintendence of a corrected understanding to 
preserve our passions in order, by keeping them 
employed in a proper manner. Even in a re- 
formed madhouse we may learn that occupation 
is the secret of enjoyment; for, however whimsical 
the delusion, or however impetuous the passion, it 



GOVERNMENT OF THE PASSIONS. 261 

may be diverted or innocently gratified, by one 
mind gaining the attention of another. It is by 
partially yielding to the mistaken interests that 
absorb the disordered mind that we persuade and 
acquire the power of conducting it to right asso- 
ciations. It is by a demonstrated concern for the 
well-being of others that we secure their affections, 
and it is by contemplating the ways of Providence 
toward ourselves that we attain holier desires, and 
a full confidence in the hand that helps us. 

A little reflection will show us that the effect of 
one object of emotion can be removed only by the 
mind being directed to another. Thus anger, the 
fiercest of our passions, is often arrested by a word, 
a look, or a thought, reminding us of some tender 
and beloved association. 

The greatest agony which the body can endure 
is sustained for the sake of those we love. Even 
the lower animals furnish us with striking examples 
of the mastery of affection over physical suffering. 
Addison, in the Spectator, relates a touching in- 
stance. A skillful anatomist opened a bitch, and, 
as she lay in the most exquisite tortures, offered 
her one of her young ones, which she immediately 
began to lick, and for a time seemed insensible of 
her own pain : on its being removed, she kept her 
eye fixed on it, and commenced a wailing cry, 
which seemed rather to proceed from the loss of 
her young than a sense of her own torment. We 
may well blush to contrast the cruelty of the man 
with the affection of the dog. 

We are all governed by what we love, and are 
taught rather by what we witness in others than 



262 GOVERNMENT OF THE PASSIONS. 

by what we experience in ourselves ; by what we 
see, rather than what we know ; and the manage- 
ment of our moral feelings is successful according 
to the demand upon our sympathies. The best 
moral education is familiarity with generous af- 
fections at work, and with the wisdom of law 
exemplified in society, endeavoring to prevent 
evil, and proving that God can not endure that 
one of his rational creatures should harm another. 

By contemplating in others the loveliness of self- 
government, for unselfish purposes, we find our 
wishes correspond with theirs, and we love them 
just in proportion as we understand our true 
interest, and believe in the puiity of motive. This 
is the divine method of teaching — " The life is the 
light of men." 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE HIGHEST TRIUMPH OF THE SOUL. 
CONCLUSION. 

The triumph of man over pain and difficulty is 
always achieved by fixing his desire upon the at- 
tainment of some prize, and the strength of his 
determination is proportioned to the value his un- 
derstanding puts upon the object at which he 
aims. The highest motive that can inspire the 
rational will is the approval of God ; being asso- 
ciated as it is with the assurance of His perfection 
and the bestowment of His favor. Hence we find 
a man, whether savage or civilized, heathen or 
Christian, ready to endure any suffering rather 
than forego his reliance upon the being whom he 
acknowledges as his God. The object of his 
worship may be false as Juggernaut, or as true as 
Jehovah, the conscientious votary is still faithful 
unto death ; but vast indeed the difference in the 
consolation and the reason of the faith : as widely 
separated as the persuasions of folly and terror 
from the attractiveness of perfect wisdom and love. 
Yet it is most interesting to reflect on the might 
of man's will in resisting temptation and endur- 
ing trial, in obedience of what he believes to be 



264 HIGHEST TRIUMPH OF THE SOUL. 

the mandate of the divine mind. This submission 
of his being to supreme will most wonderfully 
exhibits man's constitution. He was made to 
obey God, and this power depends not on a re- 
fined education, for the most untutored exhibit it 
as heroically, if not so beautifully, as the most in- 
formed. It has been said that it is easier to act 
the martyr than to conquer one's temper; but 
these achievements are alike difficult, and require 
the same lofty conceptions of a higher and holier 
being, who has a right to demand our self-renun- 
ciation from love to His perfections. We may 
therefore include all sense of duty by which men 
are governed in the idea of supreme right ; and if 
we find men, as we do, willing to sacrifice them- 
selves, we at once perceive that they possess a 
power in their own wills to overcome every evil 
disposition by constant obedience to God, their 
chief good, and the author of their being. The 
mind and body are by Him so proportioned, that 
one can bear all that can be inflicted on the other, 
and virtue can stand its ground as long as life ; so 
that a soul well-principled will be sooner separated 
than subdued* 

The detail given by Catlin of the religious rites 
of the Mandan Indians, although presenting an 
awful picture of the horrors of ignorance and 
superstition, yet exhibit also a strong illustration 
of high moral motive, sustaining and enabling the 
mind to bear patiently the greatest sufferings of 
the body. He represents them as voluntarily un- 
dergoing the most excruciating agonies, for the 
* See Rambler, No, 32, 



HIGHEST TRIUMPH OF THE SOUL. 265 

purpose of proving their devotedness in the dedica- 
tion of both body and soul to the Great Spirit. 

After a long fast, extensive wounds are inflicted 
in different parts of their bodies, into which skew- 
ers of wood are inserted, by which they are then 
suspended until the quiverings of the lacerated 
muscles cease, and all struggle and tremor are 
over; when, being apparently dead, or as they 
term it in the keeping of the Great Spirit, they 
are lowered to the ground, where they are allowed 
to lie till that Spirit enables them to get up and 
walk. Other horrid rites of an agonizing kind 
are added, but this is enough to show that these 
deluded heroes and voluntary martyrs, with due 
instruction and example, would have made fine 
Christians ; for they committed their souls to the 
keeping of the Great Spirit, apparently with as 
firm a confidence in his power, but alas ! without 
a knowledge of His love, as did Lambert, when 
consuming in a slow fire by order of the bigoted 
and cruel Henry, he cried in his torments and in 
his death, " None but Christ, none but Christ ;" 
or as did Cranmer, when repenting of the weak- 
ness that induced him to subscribe to papal doc- 
trines, he held his hand unflinchingly in the flames 
until entirely consumed, calling aloud, " This hand 
has offended, this hand has offended !" 

The history of martyrdom supplies a multitude 
of instances which so convincingly demonstrate the 
dominion of the soul over the body, as to induce a 
prevalent belief among those who consider not the 
might of the human will, that martyrs were gener- 
ally sustained in their sufferings by direct mirac- 
Z 



266 HIGHEST TRIUMPH OF THE SOUL. 

ulous interference. Nor can we wonder at this 
notion, for a faith that triumphs over death ap- 
pears supernatural ; belonging not so much to this 
life as to another, and indeed taking possession of 
the soul to fix its affections on a nobler world to 
conduct it thither. 

It may be imagined that excessive bodily tor- 
ment would exhaust the nervous power and ter- 
minate in delirium, thus accounting for the raptures 
expressed on some of those occasions. This may 
sometimes happen, especially when the infliction is 
very gradual, and the brain has been previously 
wearied by feverish anxieties; for our merciful 
Maker has so ordered our connection with the 
body, that when suffering becomes too intense and 
too continued for the mastery of the will, through 
the nervous structure, the attention is drawn off 
from the bodily feeling by mental associations, and 
from sensible to spiritual impressions, and delight- 
ful thoughts then generally take the place of 
agony. But this delirious ecstasy seems very 
rarely to have happened with martyrs ; for their 
exalted determination in general maintained a tes- 
timony either in prayers or exhortations against 
demoniac persecution, with clearness and rational 
freedom till the very moment that death sealed 
their evidence. That the mind retained its integ- 
rity in the midst of flames until the moment of 
decease, is shown by many facts, as in the in- 
stances of Lambert and Cranmer above quoted. 

Mr. Hawkes, also, being entreated by his friends 
to give them some token that the fire was not so 
intolerable but that a man might keep his mind 



HIGHEST TRIUMPH OF THE SOUL. 267 

quiet and patient, he assented; and, if so, he prom- 
ised he would lift his hands above his head before 
he died. An eye-witness states that at the stake 
he mildly addressed himself to the flames, and 
when his speech was taken away, and his skin 
drawn altogether, and his fingers consumed so that 
all thought him dead, he, in remembrance of his 
promise, suddenly lifted up his burning hands and 
clapped them together three times, as if in great 
joy. James Bainham, also, having half his arms 
and legs consumed, spake these words : " Ye look 
for miracles ! Here, now, ye may see one. This 
fire is a bed of roses to me." 

These witnesses for heaven knew what death is, 
but they never felt it. The Lord of life changed 
torment into delight for them, and converted the 
fury of flame into a gentle air that wafted their 
spirits to their kindred ; and ere He sent the chariot 
of salvation He had well assured them that the sep- 
aration of soul and body is only a symbolic part of 
death ; but that to dwell willingly in the darkness 
which the smile of perfect love can never dissipate, 
is death indeed. This struggling after unattainable 
objects, this fretting because we can not trust our 
faithful Creator, this turmoil of selfish passion — this 
is death. Reliance upon God for every good is 
life. The spirit, elevated and sustained by the 
divine strength of a Christian's faith, may walk 
above the turbulence of this world in a path of 
light, brighter and calmer than that which the 
moonbeam paves upon the waters, and which 
terminates only in the pure and serene glory of 
eternal heaven. 



268 HIGHEST TRIUMPH OF THE SOUL. 

We find, then, that man, as regards both mind 
and body, is liable to disease from disturbance 
originating in the moral nature. His passions are 
his bane as well as his blessedness. Now these 
tendencies to disorder, existing in his constitutional 
emotions, are to be subdued only by appeals to a 
power of self-control, to some consenting principle 
which perceives the reasonableness of obedience 
to certain laws for the sake of preserving the well- 
being of one's self in the welfare of others. In 
short, an appeal to the understanding of the indi- 
vidual for his own benefit, only as a part of a grand 
system of united individuals. 

Conscience proves our personality, and indicates 
that our nature is not a random result, but that it 
may be improved or perverted in relation to a fu- 
ture state ; for if we have not, nor expect, another 
state of being, what is the consequence of this life ? 
Why should we regard any thing but our own con- 
venience or enjoyment ] What, then, is the value 
of that word which whispers inwardly — " Thou 
ehalt love thy God with all thy soul, and thy neigh- 
bor as thyself 7" 

The arguments of materialists go to establish the 
notion that health of mind depends on health of 
body ; but the truth seems to be, that what con- 
tributes to the one contributes also to the other; 
for neither can be preserved without obedience to 
moral as well as physical ordinances. Indeed, it 
may not be impossible to prove that perfect obedi- 
ence to moral law would insure the complete wel- 
fare of human nature ; and the more we study the 
operation of our passions on the body, the more we 



HIGHEST TRIUMPH OF THE SOUL. 269 

discover of evi ^nce that health of soul is health to 
the body also at least we can not fail to discern 
that a holy WiM is the best regulator of desire and 
of action, and the only warrant of our qualification 
for an inheritance in light. 

The one conclusion of all research on this, as on 
every other subject, is inevitable. There is cer- 
tainly some end worthy of man's creation and suit- 
ed to his spirit, in his advancing struggle after 
knowledge and goodness, which the economy of 
earthly existence does not furnish. The purpose 
of being is not here explained ; intelligent desire is 
not satisfied ; the sunshine of truth is only reflected 
on earth ; there is no perfect day to the soul ; light 
direct from its source falls not on the sight ; we 
must imagine the delights of which we are capa- 
ble, but which we can not here realize ; we must 
live abstractedly if we would live reasonably in 
holy intimacy with Divine and human science ; we 
must look forward into futurity for the meaning of 
the past. The present adds but a stone to the 
grand erection, the design of which is to occupy 
our contemplation everlastingly; for each individ- 
ual mind, in its memory and experience, is adding 
material to material, in an order and for an end at 
present unknown to itself, but yet manifestly ac- 
cording to the plan of a mind that can not be dis- 
appointed. 

The very body, which in health so beautifully 
obeys us, while the soul seeks only perishing en- 
joyment, becomes an impediment to our nobler 
aspirations ; and when the spirit awakes to the con- 
sciousness of its infinite capacity, its very efforts to 
z* 



270 HIGHEST TRIUMPH OF THE SOUL. 

be free tend to burst the bonds of the body, which 
becomes more and more irksome as the mind grows 
mature; at length the ruinous condition of the earth- 
ly tabernacle strengthens the desire for one that is 
heavenly and eternal; and when the body obeys 
not, then the attentive believing spirit begins to 
enjoy true liberty in acquaintance with God's pur- 
pose to his creature ; and already catching a gleam 
of glory from beyond the grave, the regenerated 
man passes through death, and finds it only one 
step to enter forever through that gateway into 
satisfying and endless life. 



THE END 



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